Dragon Ninja of the Leaf
by perfect oblivion
Summary: An ambush attack leaves naruto stranded on an island, where he finds something that will shake the Elemental Nations to their foundations. STRONG!OMNI-ELEMENTAL Naruto. This will be a harem fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Out in a storm tossed sea is a boat, and on this boat we find a certain blonde haired ninja barfing his guts out over the railing.

"Pervy sage," the boy groaned, "why do he have to be on this Kami forsaken boat again?" On the other side of the ship, a man with long spiky white hair done up in a horsetail sighed.

"How many times must I tell you brat, stop calling me that. And we've been over this already. One of my contacts has come across information that Akatsuki or its suppliers are possibly getting equipment from the land of spring. I need to go over there and check it out, and wherever I go, you gotta come with." The ninja youth wiped his mouth with the sleeve of a horrendously bright orange jumpsuit, and turned towards the man.

"Can't we just walk across the water? At least then we wouldn't have to deal with all this rocking and swaying." Again the man sighed.

"For the last time Naruto, no we cannot. Not only are the waters extremely fierce, making water walking damn near impossible for someone with your level of chakra control, but the sheer distance would drain even you of chakra before you even got halfway there." The blonde ninja, now identified as Naruto, looked out to the stormy horizon.

"Can you at least teach me a jutsu? You promised you would pervy sage." The man smacked a hand to his face.

"It's Jiraya-sensei to you brat, not pervy sage. Would you please stop it with the name already."

"I'll call you Jiraya-sensei the moment you give up peeking on women and writing your perverted books. Now about that new jutsu?" The man now identified as Jiraya, sighed.

"Alright brat you win. I'll teach you a new jutsu." Naruto started running around the deck, whooping in joy.

"Calm down brat!" Jiraya hollered, "are you just going to run around all day or do you want to learn this jutsu?" Naruto immediately dashed over to Jiraya, giving the man his utmost focus.

"Alright brat, the jutsu I'll be teaching you is this." Flipping through handsigns, the sannin called out, "Water style: Water wall Jutsu!" and a torrent of water leaped over the deck and swirled around the man. Letting the jutsu drop, Jiraya looked at his student.

"So, what do you think?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Naruto, "Do you have something a little more... destructive?"

"What! Naruto, you know you're not ready for the big stuff yet. Besides, all the offensive water style jutsus have very long handsign chains that require utmost concentration to do. You aren't ready for that yet, so let's stick to the littler things." said Jiraya.

"Then teach me something destructive with a short handsign chain, like a fire jutsu." complained the blonde thirteen year old. Jiraya however, knew how to sway his student's decision. "Still though, you're going after Sasuke right. The Uchiha clan prided themselves not only for their Sharingan, but their powerful fire jutsus. So if you had a water jutsu like the water wall, something like a fireball wouldn't be able to touch you." said the sannin, and saw with delight that Naruto's mood did a one-eighty.

"Well what are we standing around for? Teach me the jutsu already!" Jiraya smirked.

"Okay brat, hold your horses. Here are the handsigns." Jiraya then showed his student the twelve handsigns needed to perform the jutsu. "When you feel like you got the signs memorized, perform them and call out the jutsu." Naruto did as instructed. After twenty repititions of the handsign chain, Naruto performed them, built up the chakra, and called out, "Water style: Water wall Jutsu!" A small tendril of water rose out of the ocean and rotated around Naruto for a bit, then fell to the deck floor with a splash.

"What, that's it?" said Naruto in disappointment. Jiraya on the other hand...

"That brat, was pretty good for a first attempt. Most people not trained to use water jutsus barely get the water to move in the first place. You managed to get it to at least rotate. All in all, that was an excellent first attempt. Just keep practicing and you'll have it down." said Jiraya with a bit of pride. Naruto's eyes lit up at the news.

"Just you wait pervy sage, I'll get this jutsu down in no time." said the blonde knucklehead as he dashed off a ways and continued to practice the jutsu.

"What did I tell you about calling me that!" Jiraya roared, "kids these days. They got no respect for their elders." The next fifteen minutes were spent with Naruto working on his new jutsu, and Jiraya looking out to sea. That was when an explosive kunai lodged itself in the deck of the ship.

"Naruto, watch out!" Jiraya shouted, and leaped away from the kunai. The explosion tore half the deck off, but the hull was undamaged.

"Oh damn, I missed." said a voice with a sneer. The two leaf shinobi turned to the voice and saw three ninja standing on the water. The symbol on their head plates showed that they were from the hidden mist village.

"_Hmm, we're too far from the mist for any of their shinobi to be attacking us, and the civil war has ended with the bloodline side being victorious, so these guys are probably bloodline haters pirating for a living." _Thought Jiraya.

"Alright Naruto, stand back. These guys are at least chunin level ninja. I know you've gotten stronger, but these guys are too much for you."

"What! I can take them pervy sage." Naruto hollered in indignation.

"Normally I'd agree, but these guys are from mist, meaning they're expert water jutsu users. Add to that the fact that we're on their home field, and these guys will chew you to pieces." Jiraya replied. Naruto was still frustrated, but decided to relent. The enemy ninja who had spoken before spoke up once again.

"Well if it isn't the toad sannin Jiraya. Shame you can't use your summons since they hate saltwater. Now if you'll let us take all the goods on this ship, we promise not to damage it any further and we'll let you two live. How does that sound?" Jiraya took a thinking pose for a minute, then blurred through a handsign chain and shouted, "White lion's mane!" Immediately, his hair lengthened and wrapped around one of the ninja, yanking him towards the sannin. Jiraya then formed a spiralling orb of chakra in the palm of his hand, and drove it into the pulled ninja's chest.

"Rasengan!" shouted Jiraya, and the ball expanded and blasted the now dead ninja back like a cannonball.

"I'll have to say, no." said Jiraya. The leader was infuriated that one of his men was taken down so easily.

"You'll pay for that sannin. You may not be able to use your summons, but I have no such inhibitions. Summoning Jutsu!" With that the leader cut a finger, went through the handsigns, and slammed a hand onto the water. With a blast of water, a large sea serpent broke the surface of the ocean and roared out at the two leaf ninja.

"Pervy sage, I hope you have a jutsu that can take that thing!" shouted Naruto, fear lacing his voice. Jiraya didn't show it, but he was also a bit frightened of the situation.

"Hahahaha, no one can bring down my sea serpent summons, so just run away you little blonde coward." Naruto immediately went silent. No one called the self proclaimed future Hokage a coward and got away with it.

"Now you listen here buster, my name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I will not be called a coward. I don't care how big and strong your summon is, I've fought bigger. No matter what, I'm going to bring you down!" The mist nin just laughed, but the sea serpent gazed down at the blonde, as if regarding him.

"You think you can take on my summons kid? That's rich, but let's see if you bite as hard as you bark, attack them my summon!" With serpentine swiftness the summon shot down at the two. Naruto and Jiraya managed to get out of the way, but the boat was smashed in half by the attack.

"Get out of here Naruto, I'll handle them." Jiraya called to his apprentice, but was engaged in a taijutsu fight with the remaining ninja.

"Sorry pervy sage, no can do. I promised I'd take that guy down, and I never go back on my word, believe it!" Shouted the blonde ninja.

"Hahahaha! You got guts kid, I'll give you that. Now attack that idiot kid." Once again the sea serpent lashed out, aiming for Naruto, but the blonde ninja had a trick up his sleeve.

"Shadow clone Jutsu" Naruto shouted, and one hundred clones popped into existence. The sea serpent ripped through a large group of the clones, but the rest leaped on it, bogging the summon down with their weight.

"Get off my summon, brat." shouted the mist nin as the sea serpent thrashed about, trying to dislodge its hitch-hikers. The real Naruto managed to get behind the enemy ninja, but he was noticed and received a kick to the chest sending him flying off.

"Nice try kid, but I'm a jonin, a little snot nosed brat like you can't even touch me." Finally removing the clones from it's body, the sea serpent once again lunged at Naruto, causing a massive spray of water from the impact. The mist nin smirked, that little brat was dead. Of course, it was that moment when Naruto leaped through the thrown up water, rasengan in hand, and drove the spinning ball of chakra right into the man's chest.

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted, and the ball expanded and sent the now dead jonin spiraling away.

"Told you I'd beat you." said Naruto as he landed on the sea serpent. Said summon did nothing to throw him off, and once again started regarding the boy on his head. Then a white whip of hair wrapped around the summon and tried to crush it. The sea serpent thrashed around, trying to rid itself of its bindings,. This caused Naruto to fall off, and the blonde ninja was smacked by the sea serpent's tail, sending him rocketing into the water. Naruto tried to swim back to the surface, but the roiling waves kept forcing him back under. For what felt like hours, Naruto tried getting back to the surface for air, but the water kept forcing him down and away from the battle area. Eventually Naruto could hold his breath no longer, and gasped in a lungful of water. He tried hacking it out, but that only caused more water to fill him. Soon his vision grew dark, and the blonde ninja ceased his struggles.

…...

Naruto awoke to the sound of dripping water. Opening his eyes, he found himself inside a very familiar sewer.

"Oh boy, let's see what the fuzzball wants now. He's probably pissed I got us killed." After a bit of walking, Naruto came to the large gates of his seal, the Kyuubi glaring out from behind them.

"**You little brat! Do you know how close to death we are?" **the demon roared. Naruto just raised an eyebrow in boredom.

"I'd say pretty damn close if your mood is anything to go by." The Kyuubi slammed itself against the bars of its cage, trying to claw at the blonde in front of it.

"**Do you have any idea how much chakra it's taking to keep your body from dying? If this keeps up, I'll be down a tail." **Again, Naruto held that bored look.

"A crying shame really. If I die, you die. And if you die, the Akatsuki can't use your power for whatever they want it for." The Kyuubi roared in fury.

"**Insolent whelp, I am the mightiest of the Bijuu. I will not end!" **Then the Kyuubi quietened down, and smirked.

"**It appears human, that your body as landed on the shore of an island. Looks like you won't be dying anytime soon, now wake up and get that water out of your lungs, my chakra can't keep you alive much longer." **With that, the Kyuubi let out a roar, casting Naruto out of his mindcsape.

…...

Naruto bolted awake, and expelled a torrent of seawater from his lungs. He started gasping and coughing, filling his lungs with much needed air. After his coughing fit was over, Naruto surveyed his surroundings. He was on a large island, with what looked to be a volcano in the center. There was a large tropical forest surrounding the shore, and that was all he could make out without exploring the island first. Getting up, Naruto noticed it was dawn. It had been mid afternoon when that battle had occurred, meaning he had traveled quite the distance. Soon, the blonde knucklehead grew curious of his surroundings, and decided to explore. By mid morning, he had explored the whole shore of the island, but what had really shocked him was the sight on the north shore. He had seen a mountain range a long ways off, and from what he could gather from his knowledge of distance perspective, those mountains had to have been huge. Eventually Naruto grew hungry, so he decided to forage around for food. However, being in a completely new environment, he had no idea what was edible and what wasn't. So instead he snapped a small branch off a tree, tied a good amount of ninja wire to it, and bent a medical stitching needle into a hook to make a fishing rod. By the time lunch rolled around, Naruto had caught three good sized fish. After making a fire, and cooking and eating his lunch, Naruto decided to explore the interior of the island. Finding nothing interesting in the forest, Naruto made it to the volcano. As he scaled the mountain, he felt a weird pull on the back of his mind, like some kind of calling. He soon found himself following the strange pull, which led him to a cave. Deciding to check it out, Naruto entered and looked around. When he reached the back, he found a large, polished black stone.

It was oval in shape, and was spider webbed with white lines. All in all, it was very beautiful, so Naruto decided to keep it. Perhaps when he got off this island, he could sell it to a jeweller for a hefty price. After finding nothing else of value or importance on the volcano, Naruto headed back to camp.

"Now what am I gonna do?" He asked himself. Naruto knew he couldn't walk across the ocean, and he had no idea how to make a boat. After a while, he decided that sitting around wouldn't get him anywhere, and started to practice the water wall jutsu. After spending the entire afternoon practicing, Naruto decided to call it quits. He could summon up a larger amount of water and make it rotate faster, but it still wasn't like the one Jiraya had made. The training did help get his mind off things, and he got an idea on how to get a hold of Jiraya. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood, he went through the hand signs, and called out his jutsu.

"Summoning Jutsu." and with a puff of smoke, Gamakichi appeared.

"Yo Naruto, what is it that you need? Got any snacks?"

"Sorry Kichi, I got nothing on me. I need you to tell Jiraya I'm stranded on a big island with a volcano in the middle, due west of where we fought those mist nins. If you can get the message to him, I'll pay you double next time I summon you. Sound good?"

"Sounds fair. All right Naruto I'll get the message to him." and the toad summon disappeared in a poof of white smoke.

Four days had passed since the message had been sent, and Naruto was still stuck on the island. He spent his time fishing for food, training with the water wall jutsu, and doing general exercises. That night though, came an event that would forever change Naruto's destiny. Naruto was just falling asleep, when all the sudden, he heard a high pitched squeak. Sitting up, he looked around, and found the stone he had found four days ago wobbling around. He tried grabbing it, but whenever he tried, it would always roll just out of reach. Just as he was about to make one more try, he heard a resounding crack. Then another, and another. Naruto watched in extreme fascination as the stone started to crack and break. Then what looked like a claw burst out of it, then another. Finally the entire thing fell apart, revealing something moving. Then the cloud cover blocking the moonlight parted a bit, and Naruto had to keep his jaw from dropping. Lying right in front of him, licking itself clean of some kind of membrane, was something only spoken of in myths and stories, a dragon. The dragon was as black as the void, with milk white spines going down it's neck. It also had intense acid green eyes brimming with intelligence and curiosity. The dragon also had four legs, unlike the pictures of dragons back home that showed them having only two. The body structure was also different than the pictures. The dragon then approached the young ninja, and started sniffing him. Naruto felt his lips quirk into a small smile as the dragon started tugging at his sleeve, and held out a hand to the small creature. The dragon sniffed his hand curiously, then pressed it's snout into it. Excruciating pain flared up in his hand, and with a scream, naruto collapsed. Soon the pain started spreading down his arm, then across his chest, and soon his whole body felt like it was engulfed in ice cold fire. The pain was soon too much for him, and he blacked out. When he awoke, it was dawn, and the pain was no longer present. Naruto then felt something press into his side, and when he looked, he saw the dragon curled up beside him. Looking at his left hand, which he had used to touch the dragon, he saw a silvery mark in the center of his palm. Tendrils of silver also seemed to radiate from the mark and down his whole arm. Looking at the silver lines in curiosity for a few minutes, Naruto brought his attention back to the dragon beside him. The dragon had begun to wake up, uncurling itself and stretching. Then it looked up to Naruto, like it was expecting something, and for a second he was clueless to what it wanted, until he felt it. It felt like something had brushed across his very mind, then he felt it again and this time it latched onto his mind. As soon as it did, Naruto started feeling sensations that were not his, but the strongest and most prominent one was hunger.

"Oh, you're hungry." Naruto said in realization, and went and got his fishing rod.

"Wait right here, I'll go get you something" he told the dragon, who only blinked in response. Naruto walked towards the ocean, keeping his gaze on the black dragon for a bit to make sure it stayed put. Satisfied that it would stay where it was, Naruto turned his attention to the task at hand, catching breakfast. A few minutes later, Naruto was walking back to the dragon, a decent sized fish in his hand. The dragon started getting excited, it's tail slowly wagging behind it. As soon as Naruto set the fish down, the dragon tore into it, devouring the entire thing. After it had finished its meal, the dragon once again pressed its snout to Naruto's hand. Out of reflex, he flinchd back, in fear of last night's pain, but it never came. Hesitantly at first, but becoming much bolder, Naruto began to stroke the dragon, who gave off a trilling sound. Again the dragon's mind touched his, and he once again felt it's sensations and emotions, and the biggest one was comfort. The days soon turned to weeks, and still no Jiraya, but Naruto didn't care. He spent his time training, and exploring the island with his dragon. The dragon was extremely surprised when Naruto used his Shadow clone jutsu in front of it, and was even more surprised when he used the water wall. The dragon also provided a companion for Naruto to talk to. The blonde ninja told his dragon about all the fights he had been in, from the land of waves, to the land of snow. Even though the dragon was silent through the stories, it always listened. Before Naruto even realized it, an entire month had passed.

…...

After the sea serpent summon had broken free of Jiraya's white lion's mane and fled, the man immediately started searching for his godson. However, no matter how hard he searched, he could not find the boy anywhere. Jiraya found an island he could stay the night on before resuming his search, but the next day proved just as futile as the last. Filled with fear and despair that Naruto was possibly dead, Jiraya went back to the island he stayed on the night before, and that was when Gamakichi appeared. He told Jiraya that Naruto was stranded on a volcanic island due west of the battle location. Flooded with relief that the boy was not dead, Jiraya weighed his options. As he was, he could not get Naruto. He would need a ship first. After four days of island hopping, Jiraya made it to spring country. After spending a week checking out the dealers for the suspicious characters, Jiraya found they were neither in nor supplying Akatsuki.

"All right," Jiraya said to himself, "Everything is done, now I need a boat so I can find Naruto." Then a black haired bombshell walked by, and Jiraya's pervert instincts took total control.

"Aw forget it. The brat's survived so far, what's a few more days. There's research to be done."

…...

**Wow, this is my first crossover, and I must say I think it's going pretty well so far. Remember to review and tell me what you all think. And to all my Final piece fans reading this, chapter 12 should be up sometime tomorrow. That's a promise.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

**Okay, first I'd like to say... wow. This fic has more reviews, more alerts, and more favorites than any of my other stories when they started out. The previous highest in reviews was Ice and Darkness with four, the previous highest in alerts was Legend of the Dragon Master with ten, and the previous highest in favorites was again Legend of the dragon master with ten. This fic has seven reviews, twenty one alerts, twenty five favorites, and is featured in three communities, beating my most popular fic, Final Piece of my heart, in this category. I had no idea this story would be so loved. Thank you to everyone who had a hand in these numbers. Now then, to answer a few questions.**

**Shushinking: Naruto will Not have access to magic. Not only is there no one to teach him how to use it, seeing as Eragon or any other magic user will not be coming to the Elemental nations, but the fact that he has chakra makes it impossible for him to use magic. Yes, Naruto gets a sword, and yes it will be made of brightsteel. Instead of magic enchantments it will have seals imbued into it which will do what the spells would do. That won't be coming for a while however.**

**Danielle J: The sea serpent makes his reappearance this chapter. As to what he wants and what happens, well you'll just have to read it and find out.**

**Some Good Names Were Taken: Yes the dragon is female. I too loved the Eragon/Saphira dynamic Paolini has got going, so I'm going to use it as well. As for the name... you'll have to read and find out.**

**Now that that's all taken care of, on with the story.**

…...

**Chapter 2**

"Okay, that's it, where the hell is Pervy Sage! I mean seriously, it has to have been at least a month since I sent Gamakichi with that message, yet the damn pervert is nowhere in sight." ranted Naruto as he paced on the beach.

"_Naruto, I know you're worried, but your teacher is probably on his way as we speak." _replied Naruto's obsidian black dragon. Recently, she had developed the ability to speak by connecting her mind with his and conveying her thoughts to the blonde ninja. _"Remember, you told me the message stated you were on a volcanic island due west of your fight. There could be dozens of such islands around. Also, you said you had come quite a distance from your previous location, so it could take a good while to find you. Just relax, he will come." _Naruto let out a deep sigh as he listened to his dragon's words of reassurance.

"Thanks Mugetsu, you always know what to say." When his dragon first started speaking to him, Naruto realized he still needed to name her. He eventually settled on Mugetsu (Moonless sky) as her scale color reminded him of the darkest nights of the new moon. She had taken a great liking to the name and approved of it. Throughout the month, Mugetsu had grown quite quickly, reaching Naruto's chest if she sat down, and coming a good head higher than the blonde standing up. Naruto turned and locked his deep sapphire eyes with Mugetsu's intense emerald orbs.

"Still, it shouldn't be taking this long. Spring country is the most advanced country in the Elemental nations. Their ships use steam engines, not sails, meaning they go much faster. Not to mention the fact that the Daimyo of spring is a good friend of mine and would have her entire fleet out looking for me, I should have been found by now." Mugetsu couldn't argue with that.

"_Why don't you train to take your mind off things. If you swamp yourself with these thoughts you're going to start brooding like the Uchiha you've told me about." _Naruto paled at the thought of going down the path of the emo like Sasuke.

"But Mugetsu, I've already mastered the water wall jutsu. What else can I train in? Without the Pervy Sage I can't learn anything new."

"_That's not true. What about that spinning blue ball, the Rasengan you call it? You have to use a clone to help you with it, but your sensei can make one with a single hand, or so you've told me. Why don't you try to make one with a single hand." _Naruto had to admit, Mugetsu had a good idea, but that was going to be difficult.

"I don't know Mugetsu, it isn't as easy as you think."

"_That's the point. Not only will you be using your time wisely, but you'll be perfecting that jutsu and gaining better chakra control because of it. Three birds with one stone. Besides, if it was easy, then it wouldn't be very rewarding when you get it down."_

"Man Mugetsu, how do you do it? You always know exactly what to say." As Naruto started working on his Rasengan, his thoughts started drifting elsewhere. Throughout the whole month he had been stuck on the island, Kyuubi had remained completely silent. Usually, Naruto could faintly hear the demon's whispered promises of breaking free and devouring him in the back of his mind, but now, there was only silence, and it was making Naruto slightly nervous. He was broken from his thoughts when his Rasengan went pop. With an annoyed grunt, Naruto made a new one, but it too popped like the previous one. Naruto kept trying until sunset , then went and caught dinner for Mugetsu and himself. Another thing Naruto was sick of was fish being the only known edible thing around, and having nothing but fish was getting really boring, really fast, something Mugetsu wholeheartedly agreed with. After their dinner was finished, Naruto laid down beside Mugetsu and gazed at the palm of his left hand. The silver oval on it continued to remain no matter what he tried to remove it. The tendrils branching out of it now spider webbed his entire body from head to toe, and he felt different as well. Deciding to leave such musings for another time, Naruto huddled against his dragon, and the darkness of her wing covered him like a blanket.

After a week of hard training, Naruto finally managed to make a stable Rasengan with one hand and hold it for fifteen minutes, yet still no Jiraya, or a boat for that matter.

"Now what? I've perfected the water wall, I can make a one handed Rasengan, but the damn Pervy Sage is still taking his time. If he was looking for me he would have definitely shown up by now." Naruto once again ranted.

"_Do you think he's presumed you dead?" _asked Mugetsu.

"No. If I was dead then he'd know through the toad contract. He knows I'm still alive."

"_Can't you use your summons to get a hold of him?"_

"Unfortunately no. I as of yet can't summon anyone besides Gamakichi and Gamatatsu without tapping into the Kyuubi's chakra, and he won't give me squat for such a trivial reason."

"_Then can't you use them?"_

"Normally yes, but I owe 'Kichi double pay, so I can't summon him unless I have the payment. Gamatatsu won't do anything until he gets a snack first, so he's out as well."

"_I can't believe this! He's supposed to be your sensei, yet he would completely abandon you to the wolves? When I meet this man I shall teach him a thing or two about pain." _Naruto stepped away from the fuming dragon, well knowledgeable of the consequences of a woman's rage. Mugetsu was very patient, but even her's could run thin. Just then, Naruto was hit with a wave of excruciating pain. Collapsing to the ground and screaming bloody murder, a red cloak of chakra started enveloping the boy.

"_Naruto!" _Mugetsu screamed out, and tried to help the boy, but the crimson chakra burned her whenever she got too close. The pain soon became intolerable to the blonde Jinchuuriki, and he blacked out. Mugetsu, feeling Naruto lose consciousness, connected to his mind and dove into his mindscape, intent on finding the cause of the boy's pain.

…...

Jiraiya had hit the jackpot. A horde of women were in the hot springs today, and they were all stunning specimens. With a quiet perverted giggle, the toad sannin furiously scribbled away in his trusty notebook, his next book was going to be a smash hit. That's when he felt it, a massive wave of malevolence and bloodlust. Jiraiya went so white he would have made Orochimaru look sunburnt, only two beings made that kind of feeling. Tsunade after finding him peeping on her, and the Kyuubi. He had to get to Naruto, pronto. Gathering up a huge amount of chakra, Jiraya immediately summoned the toad elder Fukasaku.

"Jiraiya boy, what on earth do you need me for?" Then the toad elder felt the Kyuubi's bloodlust, and his amphibian eyes widened to epic proportions. "The Kyuubi! Jiraiya boy, what happened to Naruto?"

"That's the problem Pa, I've got no clue. He's been stranded on an isolated island for a while now, and I was about to go get him when I felt the Kyuubi's killing intent. I need you to reverse summon me to Naruto's location, ASAP!" Fukasaku nodded, and poofed away, only to poof back thirty seconds later.

"It's no good Jiraiya boy. Naruto's connection to the toad contract is being warped by the Kyuubi's chakra, none of the toads can get to him." he yelled in panic. Jiraiya was on the verge of a heart attack. How was he supposed to get to Naruto in time. _'Princess Koyuki!' _Jiraiya remembered. Luckily for him, Koyuki was in the village square trying to keep order against the raging bloodlust.

"Daimyo Koyuki," he shouted to the woman, who turned to Jiraiya. "Daimyo Koyuki, my name is Jiraiya of the legendary three. I need your fastest ship, it's an emergency."

"And why should I allow you to embark on my ship?" The Daimyo asked, but Jiraiya did not have time to waste.

"It's Naruto," he said, noticing the way her eyes widened.

"Do you mean Naruto Uzumaki?"

"The very same. As you may not know, Naruto is the vessel of the Kyuubi no Yoko, and right now that demon is attempting to break loose of it's prison." Koyuki's samurai guard instantly went rigid when they heard that. If the monster escaped this close to spring, the country would be annihilated.

"Milady we must make haste and evacuate the populace. If the demon breaks free it may head for Spring country."

"No, we shall find Naruto and bring Jiraiya. Since he is a world renown seal master he can imprison, or at least immobilize the demon."

" But Milady-"

"No, captain! I will not abandon the one who gave me back my home and hope. Would you dishonor yourselves by abandoning the one who helped free Spring from my uncle's reign of tyranny?" The samurai captain winced. If they abandoned the hero of spring in his greatest moment of need, it would be an act of shame only Seppuku could atone.

"Very well Milady, we shall depart at once." With that, the group hurried to the Daimyo's personal ship, praying they would make it in time.

…...

Naruto awoke within the sewers of his mindscape, the cause being a loud bashing noise. Following the noise to it's source, the blonde ninja could only gape in horror at the scene before him. The Kyuubi's cage was in a state of massive disrepair. The massive cage doors looked so decrepit it was a wonder they hadn't fallen off their hinges yet. The bars were corroded and bent, some were even broken. But the worst of it all was the piece of paper holding the doors shut. It was in tatters, the paper was yellowed and weathered, large chunks of it were missing, and it was slowly peeling off. Then a massive red tail crashed into the doors with a mighty bang, furthering the damage to the seal.

"What in Kami's name is happening?" Naruto asked himself.

"_Naruto!" _Came the voice of Mugetsu as she flew into the Kyuubi's chamber. Then the Kyuubi decided to answer Naruto's question.

"**Surprised brat? Well to answer your question it was your pet lizard that granted me my escape." **stated Kyuubi as he smashed the bars with his tail again.

"_Lies! I had no hand in this!" _shrieked Mugetsu as she roared her fury at the Kyuubi, who dwarfed it with his own retaliating roar.

"**Nevertheless, it was you who did this, worm. That mark you gave my jailor has been altering his chakra in an interesting way, but it had the nasty side effect of causing constant heavy damage to my seal. Soon I shall be free from my prison, and there's nothing you two can do to stop me." **Mugetsu could only stare in horror at what she had inadvertently caused.

"_Naruto, I had no idea, I didn't mean it,I-I..." _Calming his distressed dragon, Naruto turned his gaze back to the Kyuubi.

"Not if I have anything to say about it you monster. I will not let you get out of me even if I have to chain you down with my will alone. You will not get out of that cage while I still breathe, you hear me!" And with that declaration, Naruto slammed himself against the doors of the cage, barricading them with his body in an attempt to keep the demon in. Said demon smashed at the cage once more sending Naruto flying forwards screaming in pain as Kyuubi's corrosive chakra assaulted him. With another smash, the doors parted somewhat and stayed that way, until they were once more slammed shut and barricaded by the blonde knucklehead, Mugetsu also assisted in barricading the cage. Roaring in fury, Kyuubi started smashing as fast and hard as he could, and for someone who can cause earthquakes an tsunamis with a lazy tail swing, that's pretty hard. Naruto and Mugetsu were pushing back with all their will and might, but it wasn't enough, and the doors were starting to open. Mugetsu pressed more of herself against the cage in an attempt to hold the raging Bijuu in, but that barely helped things.

"_I will not let you out demon. I caused this, but I shall fix it. I don't know how, but I will!" _The Kyuubi only laughed.

"**Give up already you two, there is no way you can hold me in. I am the mightiest Bijuu and none can match my power. After I devour your master while you watch worm, I'll take my time in causing you great suffering."** Kyuubi said with a sneer. Now, one thing one never does is threaten Naruto's precious people while he is within earshot, and Mugetsu counted as his absolute most precious person. Just as Kyuubi lowered his head to gloat at Naruto, the demon soon found a fully charged Rasengan smash full tilt into his nose. Screaming in pain, Kyuubi retreated for a moment, then slammed into the cage doors with his full body weight, sending the two flying back from the impact. The paper seal nearly tore in half from the force, and would not survive another hit like that. Mugetsu saw that Naruto had fallen unconscious, and had no time to wake the boy. Throwing herself back to the cage, she flew close to the seal and gripped the doors tightly closed.

"_I never go back on my word demon. I promised Naruto I would keep you in, and that is what I'll do!"_

"**Hah! You think a mere worm like you can stop me? You're just as idiotic as the human." **Kyuubi prepared to smash the doors open once and for all, and Mugetsu knew she couldn't stop him. Just then, Mugetsu felt a massive power flood her being. Feeling the strange power building within her, Mugetsu placed her snout on the remains of the seal and directed the power into it, praying against all hope that it could fix, or at least repair the seal enough for help to arrive. What it did shocked both the dragon and Kyuubi. The seal completely restored itself, and started glowing in multicolored light. Immediately, torrents of red chakra erupted from the Kyuubi, and was sucked up into the seal like a black hole. The seal let off a massive pulse of energy, sending both dragon and demon flying back. Soon, yellow chakra flooded out of the other side of the seal, filling Naruto's chakra coils with the purified chakra of the Kyuubi. Mugetsu could barely move, she had poured a large amount of that strange power into the seal, yet more was building up within her. No longer able to control it, it radiated out of her and started seeping into the mindscape, and by proxy, body of Naruto. The entirety of Naruto's chakra coils and pathways once again became as malleable as they were the day the demon was sealed within him, allowing for the purified chakra to merge and assimilate into Naruto's own, comfortably boosting Naruto's chakra capacities to levels bordering on inhuman. Finally, the seal stopped working in overdrive, and crumbled to dust. Kyuubi, now reduced to four tails, took his chance and leaped at the now unlocked gates. Mugetsu, completely unable to move, roared her defiance to the bijuu, and the last of the strange power within her traveled into her roar. The blast slammed into the Kyuubi just as the doors were thrust open, but before the demon could take a single step outside, and sent the Demon rocketing back.

Then Kyuubi felt it, a strange burning all over it's body. Looking at a paw, the Kyuubi could only stare in horror as the appendage started disintegrating, and dawning comprehension filled the demon's eyes. It was said that there was no possible way to kill a bijuu, but that was not the absolute truth. There was a method that could, in actuality, kill a bijuu. One had to convert the absolute entirety of the target bijuu's chakra into a different form of energy or chakra type altogether. Without it's chakra to reform it's body, the demon's will and consciousness could not survive, and would completely fade away, eradicating the target bijuu forever. Thing is, no conversion seal had the durability to withstand the sheer amount and power of demonic chakra. As such, it was deemed impossible to kill the bijuu. This dragon however, had done the impossible. Kyuubi could only watch as it's remaining chakra started converting into natural energy, which left Naruto's body and saturated into the island itself. The demon had no way of stopping the process, and it could not move to flee. Then Kyuubi felt an emotion that it thought it would never feel, fear. And so it roared, in anguish, in malice, in fear, but most of all, in utter and absolute hatred of the one being who managed to slay it, a dragon barely two months old. As the last of the demon's chakra finished converting, the roar faded, and silence reigned. Mugetsu tried to stand, tried to crawl, tried to move, but couldn't, and darkness completely engulfed her.

…...

For Jiraiya, things had gone from catastrophic, to apocalyptic in a matter of seconds. On the horizon, was a massive pillar of crimson chakra. His worst fears were confirmed, Kyuubi was nearly loose, and Naruto was beyond saving. What had the boy done to unleash the Kyuubi? Had he tried to manipulate it's chakra, or had the demon found some kind of weakness in the seal? However, the massive pillar drew back to ground level below the horizon, meaning something had stopped it. Was Naruto fighting it?

"Everyone," Jiraiya hollered, "We have to hurry, Naruto is holding the demon back through sheer willpower. Do not waste the time he's buying us!" The crew, hearing that their country's hero was giving them a chance, pushed all their effort into their jobs, praying they made it in time.

"Such a will, to hold back such a monster. If we cannot save the boy, nor avenge him, my entire company and I shall commit Seppuku, for we will have failed our lady's and our country's greatest pillar of hope." The other samurai nodded in agreement. Jiraiya prayed with all his might that the boy could be saved. Then the pillar of chakra rose again, only this time it was yellow. This shocked all who were familiar with chakra.

"Isn't the Kyuubi's chakra supposed to be red?" asked a samurai, getting affirmative nods. Soon the yellow pillar vanished, and a few minutes after, the entirety of the Kyuubi's presence vanished. All were shocked beyond words by this. Jiraiya's brain was working overtime sorting out the possibilities.

However, all prayed that the blonde boy was still firmly in the realm of the living.

…...

"Oh Kami, I feel like Granny used me for a punching bag all day, then chief toad sat on me. What happened?" asked Naruto as he woke up. Shaking his head to clear it, he opened his cerulean eyes, and saw Mugetsu's motionless form.

"Mugetsu!" Naruto screamed in panic, and dashed over to the obsidian dragon. Kneeling beside her, Naruto's panic grew when he couldn't see a sign of her breathing. Placing an ear to her chest, Naruto prayed to any god willing to listen for a heartbeat.

"Please Mugetsu, please don't die. You're the most precious person I have. If I lose you then the bastard fox wins. Please don't be dead Mugetsu, I'm not worth dying for." The obsidian dragon gave no sign she was alive throughout Naruto's pleas, and the boy could hold it no longer. Tears freely fell from Naruto's eyes. He had failed once again. He had failed his most precious person. Mugetsu had told him that it didn't matter to her he had a demon in his gut. It didn't matter to her what he was. All that mattered was that he was himself, and no matter what happened to him or what others did to him, she would never leave him. Now she was gone, protecting him when he had not deserved it.

"!" Naruto's scream seemed the cause the wind itself to flee, and when Naruto could scream no more, he collapsed as a sobbing wreck. Gone was the happy go lucky attitude, gone was the grinning mask, this was the true Naruto. A boy whose loneliness had driven him to the edge, and now he had lost the most precious thing he had, a friend who cared about him solely for being himself. Over and over he repeated "I wasn't worth it." and continued to sob his eyes out. Then he heard something. It was extremely faint, and he didn't catch what was said, but he definitely heard something. Slowly turning, Naruto laid his eyes once again on the unmoving body of Mugetsu, but instead of closed eyes, they were open, she was alive.

"_You are worth it Naruto, never say otherwise." _Naruto leaped at the black dragon and hugged her fiercely.

"I thought you were dead. You weren't breathing, you weren't moving, but you're alive. You're alive, thank Kami you're alive." Naruto said while sobbing into her scales. Mugetsu tried to move, but her body was still to weak to do so.

"_I'm too exhausted to move Naruto, and I was breathing rather shallowly, I'm sorry I terrified you so."_ The two remained embraced for a few minutes, then both their stomachs rumbled. Blushing in embarrassment, Naruto let go of Mugetsu and went to go catch dinner. Half an hour later saw Naruto carrying a sizable pile of fish for Mugetsu, who ravenously tore into the pile as soon as Naruto was clear of it, she didn't want to accidentally bite him. Naruto then went back to catch his own dinner, but as soon as he came within two feet of the ocean he heard a deep voice, deeper than Gamabunta's, but higher than Kyuubi's.

"**I finally found you, Naruto Uzumaki." **With that, the same sea serpent from two months ago broke the surface of the water. Naruto started to panic, Mugetsu couldn't move yet, and he had nothing that could take that summon.

"Are you here to avenge your summoner?" Naruto asked. The sea serpent merely looked at him.

"**No. Our previous summoner was a heartless coward who used us to attack ships that were defenseless against us. Furthermore, he treated us as mere tools to do his bidding. No Uzumaki, we sea serpents are very thankful for killing our summoner. The reason I have been searching for you is because I want to offer you something." **With that, the sea serpent's throat contorted, then bulged. The bulge rose up his throat until it entered his mouth, which he opened revealing a large scroll.

"**We sea serpents wish for you to be our newest summoner. This is our contract." **The sea serpent laid the scroll down in front of Naruto, and carefully rolled it open to an empty slot.

"Wait a minute, I've already signed the Toad contract, can I still sign your guys'?" asked Naruto

"**To answer your question, yes. Multiple contracts may be signed, only if the clans have no quarrel with each other, and you have the chakra reserves to carry multiple contracts, which you easily do. We sea serpents have no quarrel with the toads, so it is perfectly acceptable to sign our contact." **Naruto nodded his head, but still had one more question.

"before I sign this, why was I chosen? There must have been many who were just as worthy."

"**Ah, but that is where you are wrong Naruto. When our previous summoner insulted your courage and integrity, you stood defiant against him and myself, showing your bravery and resolve. When you refused your master's order to flee and instead stayed to fight me, that showed your loyalty and courage, and when you defeated my summoner in a fair battle, it showed your honesty, trustworthiness, and honor. We sea serpents value these traits like gold, and for you to hold them all and in such quality makes you the greatest candidate." **Naruto's eyes widened, and he bowed in respect to the sea serpent.

"Thank you, I will not treat you like your previous summoner did." Cutting his palm and bloodying his fingers, Naruto stamped his fingerprints in the proper box, and wrote his name in blood on the adjacent slot. The scroll rolled itself back up as soon as Naruto finished. The sea serpent picked the scroll back up and swallowed it once more.

"**It is done. Now Naruto, as your new summons do you need anything from us at this time?"**

"Yes in fact I do. My companion and I need to get to Spring country, formerly Snow country, can you help us out."

"**Of course Naruto. What you ask is simple for a sea serpent, though I appreciate you telling me the former name of the country, I had no idea it had been renamed. Bring your companion and we shall leave straight away."**

"Could you come with me then? I may need some help." If the sea serpent was confused he did not show it, and followed Naruto until they came to Mugetsu.

"_Naruto, who is this?" _asked the obsidian dragon.

"Don't worry, he's a friend. He'll be taking us to the mainland." Nodding, Mugetsu allowed the sea serpent to gently hoist her on his back, doing the same with Naruto. Once both passengers were secure, the sea serpent sped through the water like Chouji with an all you can eat for free BBQ coupon, towards the direction of Spring country. Both summon and summoner however, noticed a large steam ship heading their way at swift speed. Squinting a bit to see farther, Naruto immediately recognized the man standing on the prow of the ship.

"Oh for the love of the log, now he decides to show up. Hey...uh, you know I never did get your name."

"**It's Arashiryu."**

"Ah, thanks. Arashiryu, can you swim up to that boat, my sensei happens to be on it." Wordlessly, Arashiryu shifted course. Naruto then took the time to think up an explanation he was no doubt going to be asked for, he just hoped everything turned out well.

…...

**A/N:**

**Holy F***, I killed the Kyuubi, and I did it plausibly too. I think I'm the first one to do that. Now then, who cried. Seriously, who cried and thought I had killed off Mugetsu? Now then as I said above, Naruto will not learn magic. I've got better planned. As for the dragon's name, Mugetsu had an elegant ring to it,so I decided to use it. Also, no. Naruto will not travel to Alagaesia, and no character from the inheritance cycle will make an appearance. So, put up a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter, and if you cried, please say so. I tried to make that scene as emotional as possible and I want feedback on how well I did. If you cried that means I've been doing something right.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Jiraiya was mentally dancing in joy. On the horizon was a volcanic island, matching the description Gamakichi gave. As they got closer, Jiraiya had to hold back his surprise as he felt a massive amount of natural energy flowing throughout the area. That island and the surrounding area had more natural energy than mount Myoboku. Casting his gaze on the waves, he then saw something that made his body go tense.

"Koyuki, enemy summon approaching." the man called out to the daimyo. The samurai guard immediately surrounded their daimyo and took up defensive positions. Two minutes later the sea serpent rose it's head up to the ships deck, but it was the sight of who was on it that caused everyone to gape like fish.

"Naruto?" Jiraiya asked in disbelief. He had thought Naruto had died due to that massive release of the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Pervy sage, what the hell took you so long!" the boy shouted. "I spent two months on that island waiting for your womanizing ass to show up and get me off, and it's only after that whole Kyuubi fiasco that you show your perverted face." This got Koyuki's attention.

"You left him stranded on an island for two months?" Koyuki asked in shock.

"Hey, I got a very good reason. I had heard that Akatsuki could possibly be purchasing shipments of Spring's technology. If this was true, then I couldn't let Naruto be anywhere near Spring. So I had left him there and was going to get him back when the whole Kyuubi thing started up." Naruto however, wasn't convinced in the slightest.

"You're telling me it took you two months to get your info. Yeah right, like it ever takes you that long. You were so peeking on the women's bath again you perverted old man." Killing intent flooded the deck of the ship, and it was all focused on Jiraiya. Said man slowly turned to it's source and saw a very angry Koyuki and samurai guard.

"You mean that you left Naruto stranded on an island, barely able to fend for himself, all so you could get material for your perverted books?" Jiraiya gulped, that tone meant pain was on it's way.

"Milady, allow us to discipline this sorry excuse for a man." Asked the guard captain, and Koyuki nodded. The entire samurai guard crept towards the toad sannin, who was backing away in fear.

"Now now, let's be reasonable." Jiraiya tried talking his way out of it, but the samurai would hear none of it. Leaping at the poor man, the guards proceeded to give Jiraiya a beating that rivaled one of Tsunade's. After the guards had finished with the twitching lump of flesh that was Jiraiya, the man shakily got up and turned to Naruto.

"Okay brat, get over here. That seal needs checking." At this, Naruto looked nervous.

"Um, about that, the fox is gone." he said.

"Wait, It got out?" asked a very worried Jiraiya.

"No, not released gone, gone gone."

"Nothing can kill a biju kid, meaning it got loose."

It's true pervy sage, I swear."

"Then prove it." That got Naruto. How could he prove that the Kyuubi was dead?

"_Naruto, allow me. I can prove it." _Mugetsu's voice filled his mind. Nodding to his dragon, Mugetsu managed to fly up onto the deck with great effort. Gasps and cries of shock and awe met the dragon as everyone saw her.

"Naruto what is that, a summon?" asked Jiraiya.

"Nope, that's a real dragon pervy sage." All eyes save Nauto's widened to epic proportions.

"I can't believe it, the legends are true." said one of the samurai.

"Legend? What legend?" asked the blonde ninja.

"There's an old legend in spring dating back to the clan wars. It is said that there was an old land far to the west, a land where dragons lived. No one ever managed to reach this land, and if they did, none returned. I thought it was a legend, but that is clearly a dragon of the west." replied the samurai.

Jiraiya was about to retort, when he felt some kind of presence grab hold of his mind.

"_So you are Jiraiya, or as Naruto calls you, pervy sage. I can prove that the demon is dead." _Jiraiya could only gape in shock. That dragon was using some form of telepathy far more advanced than anything a Yamanaka could pull. Jiraiya turned to the dragon. He couldn't tell if it was a summon, and he had never heard of dragons being a summon creature. It also looked completely different than any painting or drawing of dragons he had ever seen.

"All right dragon, you say you can prove that the Kyuubi is dead. Please do so." Then Jiraiya found himself seeing the entire battle against Kyuubi through Mugetsu's eyes. Now Jiraiya was no fool. He knew this was not a genjutsu since his chakra was undisturbed, and he had also worked with Yamanakas, so he knew a memory when he saw one. After the battle had finished, Jiraiya was convinced. Firstly because it now made sense as to why there was so much natural energy all over the place, and secondly because Jiraiya knew that Naruto had no knowledge of memory altering techniques, so that memory was completely true.

"All right, I believe you dragon." said the toad sage, then he got a good look at Naruto. The boys clothing was in ruins, most likely due to the corrosive power of the fox's chakra. But what really got the man's attention was the the spider webbing of silver veins that appeared to be all over the blonde.

"What are those markings about, Naruto. I didn't know you got any tattoos."

"What, oh these," said Naruto as he saw what Jiraiya was talking about, "I got them from Mugetsu. When I first touched her, this appeared." he continued, and showed Jiraiya the mark on his palm. "After that it gradually spread across my whole body." Naruto decided not to mention the mark was also the reason the seal had been so damaged the fox could escape.

"Hm, interesting. I'm no Hyuuga, but I'm pretty sure those are your chakra pathways. The mark must be affecting them somehow and making them visible." Then his attention turned to the sea serpent. "And just how are you riding that summon, Naruto?"

"Oh, that's easy. A little while ago he came to the island I was on and offered me to sign his contract. Naturally, I agreed." Jiraiya nodded. It made sense, and now that he thought about it, that sea serpent was looking at his student like it was regarding him for something.

"All right brat, here's what we're going to do. We are not going to tell anyone the Kyuubi's dead." He got no further when Naruto made his opinion known.

"What! No way in hell pervy sage. If we tell the village my life will get infinitely better. I'll finally be able to walk in a store without getting overcharged, if not thrown out. I'll finally be able to buy quality equipment, and I finally won't be stared at with hate. Hell, I might even get a date." However, Jiraiya was expecting this.

"Okay brat, now what would Akatsuki do if they heard you've just single handedly ruined all their plans? They would beat you to a pulp, tie you up, and proceed to slaughter everyone you care about with you watching. Then they would torture you endlessly until they got bored, and then they would kill you." Throughout the explanation, Naruto went paler and paler.

"Okay pervy sage, I get it. We do not speak of this." Mugetsu was also nodding. The rest of the return trip went on in praise that Naruto was alive. When they reached spring country the sea serpent dismissed itself back to the summon realm. Soon Naruto was back to training.

"So, what are you going to leave me with this time?" asked Naruto.

"Okay brat, the first thing I want to see is what you've worked on during our 'separation'. Knowing you, you would be training to pass the time." So Naruto did the signs for the water wall, only for the water to appear out of the air. The amount was also staggering.

"Whoa kid, not so much. We're not under attack." said Jiraiya, then he realized something.

"Do it again." he spoke with absolute authority. Nodding, fearful of the consequences of refusal, performed the jutsu again.

"_I can't believe this. To pull moisture from the air and atmosphere itself. Only the second hokage had such mastery over water." _Jiraiya thought to himself. "Okay brat, that's pretty good, but we got to work on your chakra control. You're pulling more water than necessary. Anything else?" Nodding, Naruto performed a one handed Rasengan, it held for a minute, then blew up in his face.

"What the hell! I could hold this baby for fifteen minutes before she went boom. What's going on here?" Mugetsu decided to make her opinion known.

"_Naruto, you were unconscious at the time, but when I was fighting the Kyuubi, I had somehow repaired the paper seal holding the cage and caused it to go, as you like to say, into overdrive. It purified a massive portion of the Kyuubi's chakra and sent it into your chakra coils and pathways. The reason you must have such horrible control is that you now have so much more chakra at your disposal."_

"That... makes a lot of sense." replied Naruto out loud.

"What makes a lot of sense brat?" asked Jiraiya.

"Huh? Oh, Mugetsu was telling me that due to certain events with the bastard fox, I now have much bigger reserves than I did to begin with, shooting my control down to nil." Jiraya nodded at this, having seen the memory from Mugetsu.

" All right then. For now we work on your chakra control seeing as you don't have the control for any of the jutsu I can teach you." Jiraiya then took Naruto and Mugetsu and found them a waterfall.

"All right brat here's what we'll do. I want you to climb that waterfall. It's basically a combination of tree climbing, and water walking, Now get to it." With that, Naruto tried climbing the waterfall, and was promptly blown off. Chuckling at the blonde, Jiraiya turned to Mugetsu.

"Now, you are also going to be trained. Very powerful forces were after Naruto for the demon in his belly, but once word gets out that it's dead and gone, they _will _come to kill you and Naruto for destroying their plans. I need you to be able to watch Naruto's back, because I'm not going to be around all the time to do it. The first thing we need you to do is unlock your own chakra. Now the process is different for animals than it is for humans, but I've talked to Inuzukas about how they do it for their ninja hounds. What you have to do is..." While Jiraiya was busy with Mugetsu, Naruto had fallen off the falls three times already. With a frustrated growl, Naruto rushed up the falls, making it a third of the way before his control slipped and he got sent flying off the falls.

"Argh, why can't I do this?" Naruto growled in frustration.

"_Patience Naruto. This is not a race. Your anger and impatience are throwing off your control. Stay calm and focused and you will get it." _Mugetsu assured the angered blonde. Taking her words to heart, Naruto kept calm and focused as he once again ran up the falling water, and this time he made it half way up before he slipped off.

"Honestly Mugetsu, how do you do it? You always know what to say." Naruto said to the obsidian dragon. Then a pulse of energy was felt, and Naruto looked over to his dragon and saw her surrounded in a blue aura.

"You got it Mugetsu, cut the flow." Said Jiraiya, and the dragon did as told. "All right dragon, now that you've unlocked your chakra, now you've got to learn how to control it." Jiraiya started looking around. The forest they were currently in was composed completely of pine trees, not a single leaf in sight. Then he saw the thickness of these trees.

"okay Mugetsu, come over here." beckoned Jiraiya, and led Mugetsu to one of the more thicker trees. "Using your chakra, I want you to walk up the side of the tree. Too much chakra will blow you off the trunk, and too little will cause you to not adhere correctly and slip off. Keep working on it until you can climb both up and down the tree without a single slip. Naruto! Quit your slacking, I'm watching you." Said blonde immediately got back to work. Soon both boy and dragon had finished their exercises and the sun was starting to touch the horizon.

"Okay you two that's enough. Naruto, you're with me for dinner. Mugetsu, you'll need to hunt. When you're finished, stay here. Naruto and I will be back here in the morning." Mugetsu didn't like the prospect of being separated from Naruto, and the boy could feel her discomfort through their bond. Going up to his dragon, he embraced her around the neck.

"Don't worry about a thing Mugetsu, we'll be back in the morning, I promise, and I never break those."

"_I know Naruto, but what if something happens and I'm not there?" _replied the dragon.

"Hey, I can take care of myself, and I still got the pervert with me, so I'll be fine." said naruto in reassurance. With Mugetsu calmed down, Naruto headed back into town with Jiraiya. After a large dinner consisting of food besides fish, Naruto was in his hotel room laying on a real bed. After sleeping on the ground for two months, the softness was just too much, and the boy was soon asleep.

…...

"Alright pervy sage, what gives? It's been a week and you haven't hit the women's bath once. If I hadn't told Mugetsu to enter your mind to confirm your identity, I would've sworn you were an imposter." Jiraiya started at that. The dragon had been in his head and he hadn't even known, that was dangerous.

"I will ask you nicely brat, that neither you nor your dragon ever enter my head again. There is information in there that you are not ready for, and could put you in extreme danger." He said very sternly, making both dragon and boy nod. "Now to answer your question Naruto, the easiest way to put it would be, you win."

"Huh? What do you mean I won?"

"That incident last week happened because instead of coming to get you immediately after I was finished with my work in spring, I decided to go skirt chasing instead. If I had come immediately, I could have probably stopped that from ever happening. Now I know you two killed the Kyuubi, but what would have happened if Mugetsu couldn't defeat it, or if Mugetsu wasn't there at all? My womanizing ways could have killed you Naruto" Jiraiya then got on his knees and bowed to Naruto, "for that I am deeply sorry." Jiraiya got back up and stared into Naruto's shocked face.

"Now, until your training is complete Naruto, I have sworn off all forms of perversion." Now the blonde's jaw was hitting the ground and his eyes were as wide as saucers. Jiraiya could not help but laugh at his student's face. "Now then, we leave spring in a few days, so you might want to visit your daimyo friend." Snapping out of his shock, Naruto nodded and headed for the daimyo's palace, Mugetsu following. Reaching the palace, Naruto was allowed inside and was led to lady Koyuki.

"So Koyuki, how's the royalty life treating you." asked Naruto as he and Mugetsu entered her office. Looking up at her visitor from her work desk, Koyuki smiled.

"You sure you want to be hokage Naruto? You'll have to do just as much paperwork as I do."

"Nah I got something that can beat it." Before he could continue, Koyuki was on him like Mugetsu on a deer.

"Please tell me Naruto! This paperwork is driving me mad, I can't take it." the Daimyo pleaded.

"Sorry Koyuki, ninja technique. Since you can't use chakra and your reserves are much too small to use it without it killing you, I'm afraid I can't teach you how." Dejectedly returning to her desk, Koyuki slumped back into her chair.

"Dammit, well if you know how to beat paperwork, you're already stronger than the other kages." Koyuki sighed, then she remembered something. "Oh Naruto, My samurai and I have some gifts for you. Call it a belated thank you for helping me return to my seat of power." With a snap of Koyuki's fingers, two samurai came in carrying a bundle of something, and a large scroll. Placing the items on Koyuki's desk and bowing, the two samurai returned to their posts. Grabbing the scroll first, Koyuki gave it to Naruto.

"That Naruto, are all the ice style ninjutsu that our ninja village has to offer, along with the exercises for chakra element fusion." At this, Naruto looked at the scroll like a priceless gem, then he grew confused.

"Um Koyuki,. Don't you need a bloodline to use ice style ninjutsu?" He asked, memories of Haku coming into his mind.

"For general ice jutsu, heavens no. If that was the case then my uncle would never have been able to use them himself." Naruto nodded, and reverantly set the scroll down.

"And this," said Koyuki, as she gave Naruto the bundle and unraveled it, revealing a sort of form fitting armour like the kind ANBU wore, "Is our latest model of chakra armour. It severely dampens the power of hostile jutsu, and enhances the power of your own. Furthermore, you can channel chakra into the arm guards to create a shield of chakra that can block enemy projectiles." Naruto gazed at the armour. It was a deep black, like Mugetsu's scales, and it had two stripes of dark orange going down the front. The arm and leg guards guards were the same dark orange, while the rest of the arms and legs were black. In the center of the chest was the armour's power cell, glowing a soft blue.

"Thank you for your generosity lady Koyuki." said Naruto, respectfully bowing in thanks.

"There's no need to bow Naruto, these are to show my and my people's gratitude for ending my uncle's tyranny." Naruto spent the rest of the morning talking with Koyuki, and when lunch rolled around, bid the daimyo goodbye. Retuning to jiraiya, Naruto eagerly displayed what the daimyo had given him.

"Ice style ninjutsu! Do you know how lucky you are to have gotten that?" Naruto let off a deadpan look.

"And do you know just how much luck I have, sensei?" Jiraiya couldn't fault him there. Then he got serious.

"Okay brat, I wasn't going to do this so soon, but I know you'll want to learn what's in that scroll, and you can't unless you do this." Jiraiya reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. "Grasp the paper between your thumb and index finger," which Naruto did, "now, we're going to find out your elemental affinity." Naruto became confused when he heard that.

"What's that sensei." he asked.

"Elemental affinity is the type of element your chakra most naturally conforms to. For example, if you are a lightning element, your chakra will have a much easier time turning into lightning, making lightning element jutsu much easier to learn and more powerful." Naruto then got a face splitting grin upon hearing that.

"okay sensei, how do we rock this boat?" the blonde asked.

"All you need to do is channel some chakra into the paper and see how it reacts. If it burns, you're a fire element, gets wet, water, crumbles into dirt, earth, splits in half, wind, and crinkles in on itself, lightning." Nodding, Naruto channeled a small bit of his chakra into the paper. The paper immediately split into four strips with cuts so fine it looked no different from the edges. One strip then turned into sodden mush. Another strip lit ablaze then burnt out, leaving not even ash behind. The third strip crumbled into extremely fine powder, and the final strip crinkled into a ball the size of Naruto's thumbnail. Jiraiya had gone wide eyed when he saw the paper split, then slack jawed when the paper showed he had all elements for affinities. Naruto just looked confused.

"So does this mean I can use ice style ninjutsu?" he innocently asked. Jiraiya could only nod as he fainted in shock. When he woke back up, he had Naruto retake the test, only to get the same result.

"Okay brat, apparently your luck knows no bounds. Only one other student of mine had affinities for every element, and that was because of his bloodline." Naruto started whooping in joy, saying how awesome he was. Letting him have his fun, Jiraiya thought back to his days with Nagato and the other two Rain orphans.

"Hey sensei, you feeling okay?"Asked Naruto when he noticed his sensei's melancholic look.

"Hm, oh it's nothing Naruto, just going down memory lane." Then Jiraya noticed something. "So what changed?"

"Huh?" was Naruto's less than intelligent answer.

"You're calling me sensei now, what changed?"

"Oh that? Well, you swore off perversion, and I did say the moment you stopped peeking and writing your books I'd start calling you sensei." At this, Jiraiya smiled.

"That you did brat. Okay, back to business. It's been established that you have both water and wind affinities, thus allowing you to perform Ice style ninjutsu. Now, since I've never done element fusion myself I have no way of teaching it to you." Naruto immediately face faulted.

"However," continued Jiraiya, "I'm pretty sure that the scroll comes with instructions on how to do it."

"Yeah it does, Koyuki told me so." said Naruto as he started unrolling the scroll. After finding the instructions for element fusion, Naruto grew confused.

"Sensei, it says I must know advanced wind and water manipulation exercises to perform ice style ninjutsu. What are the exercises?"

"Damn, unfortunately Naruto, seeing as I'm neither a wind nor water affinity, I have no clue." Naruto grew disappointed at that. Then Jiraiya realized something. Looking over the element fusion instructions, Jiraiya couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"However, I am a fire and earth affinity, meaning I can teach you the nature manipulation exercises for those elements."

"But sensei, you need water and wind to make ice. What does learning fire and earth have to do with this?"

"True, but I'm not going to be teaching you ice style ninjutsu. Until we can find the nature manipulation exercises for wind and water, ice style ninjutsu are off limits, if you're not careful you could freeze yourself solid. Instead I'm going to teach you fire and earth manipulation exercises so we can build up to working on a different sub element, lava." This got Naruto's attention.

"Lava?" he asked curiously.

"That's right boy, lava. Now then I want you to take this," said Jiraiya, and handed Naruto an empty, blank scroll, "and burn it with just your chakra. The trick is imagining your chakra as a source of flame and heat, and willing the flame to spread." Armed with this knowledge, Naruto proceeded to perform the exercise, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't get the scroll to burn.

"Sensei, is there a way to speed up my training?" Jiraiya thought about it and realized there was.

"Tell me Naruto, have you ever noticed anything unusual when you dispel your shadow clones?"

"Not that I know of, although I do spam that jutsu like it's going out of style." Naruto responded.

"Alright Naruto, make a clone." Naruto did as ordered and made a shadow clone, which Jiraiya took behind a big bush. Naruto then got an enraged look on his face, and when Jiraiya returned made his thoughts vocal.

"What the hell sensei! First you call me a moron, then you sock my clone? What the hell did I do?" Jiraiya just stood there for a bit with a knowing smirk on his face before deciding to respond.

"And just how did you know that?" Then Naruto realized, just how did he know that?

"I see you're figuring it out. Shadow clones are useful because not only are they solid, but because whatever they learn, the creator learns as well. Shadow clones are amazing this way for information gathering. You however, can make so many it's perfect for training." Naruto could only gape. He had been spamming this jutsu since day one and not once had he noticed this. He really was a moron.

"Now, I want you to make thirty clones." Naruto did so, and Jiraiya handed each clone a scroll.

"Now then, your clones are going to perform this exercise. At sunset, they are to dispel in groups of five at five minute intervals. If they dispel all at once, I guarantee you'll get a killer headache. During this time, you, as in the real you, will be doing physical exercise. Clones get mental experience, but not physical, so you'll have to do that yourself. Now give me fifty push ups, fifty sit ups, and after that run fifty laps around the area." Naruto could only gape in horror at the amount of physical exercise he was being forced to do.

"Well what are you doing standing around like that? Get on the ground before I double the exercises!" Naruto was on the ground in a flash. Jiraiya then turned to Mugetsu, Who was snickering at the blondes misfortune.

"Now as for you, dragon, grab that boulder," said Jiraiya, pointing towards a medium sized boulder, "and get in the air. You will stay suspended for as long as possible, then come back down and rest for ten minutes, then repeat. You will not stop until you can stay in the air for an hour." This time the dragon was gaping in horror.

"Is something wrong? Get going, or I'll make you carry a heavier load!" Mugetsu immediately did as she was told, managing to get into the air while holding such a load.

"And if I see either of you slacking, you'll be getting a taste of the stick." said Jiraiya, and whipped out a black club-like stick.

"_The slave driver." _were the thoughts of both Naruto and Mugetsu upon seeing that stick.

…...

**A/N:**

**Finished. And that is what Naruto is getting instead of magic, affinities for every element. Now to answer a question from one of my readers. Yes Naruto can open links with other minds, but can't draw natural energy from them or use them to empower sage mode. However, sage mode will have an effect on this ability. Now then, review and let me know what you all think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Again brat!" Jiraiya hollered at Naruto.

"Fire Style: Dragon flame bombs!" Shouted Naruto as he blurred through the handsigns and unleashed a raging torrent of fire.

"Next jutsu, now!"

"Earth Style: Earth dragon stone cannon!" A large earth dragon erupted from the ground and unleashed a barrage of massive stones from it's mouth. Jiraiya nodded in approval.

"Well brat, your jutsu arsenal is improving nicely, and your handsign speed has also improved. You even got both the earth and fire manipulation exercises down pat. However, don't use _that _jutsu unless you really have to. It takes up way to much chakra." Naruto grinned at the praise.

"Yes sensei, so does this mean we'll be able to do lava style ninjutsu?" the blonde asked.

"That's right Naruto, You've come far enough in elemental manipulation that we can now start on element fusion." Jiraiya said with a hint of pride in his voice. It had been two months since they had left spring, and Naruto had improved by leaps and bounds. A week after they had left, Jiraiya had Naruto make a hundred clones each day. One group of fifty would practice element manipulation, while the other fifty would read books and scrolls on anything Jiraiya deemed necessary. At first Naruto was against reading, but some persuasive words on Jiraiya's part, and the ever present threat of the stick, made Naruto comply. The boy soon found he enjoyed reading, and whenever training was off while they were in town, Naruto would always visit the library. Mugetsu had hit a growth spurt in the past two months. Now she was big enough for Naruto to ride, something the blonde jumped at. Their first flight together was also the day they realized a saddle would be needed. Mugetsu's scales had rubbed Naruto's legs raw and bloody. It was also this incident that showed Naruto he had kept his healing factor, despite no longer having the Kyuubi within him. Jiraiya had also taken it upon himself to teach the blonde strategy, and the two regularly played shogi, Naruto developing a swift enjoyment to the game. He also found he was quite good at it too. Mugetsu also played against Jiraiya, though she would have Naruto move the pieces for her. She was good enough to give, in Jiraiya's terms, a certain clan of sloths a real challenge. Naruto's physical abilities also improved. With his new training regimen in place, Jiraiya had also put Naruto on a strict diet. Ramen was not to be eaten, except on weekends. Naruto was given instead foods high in proteins, fibers, and carbs. Jiraiya also made sure the boy got his vegetables, and if Naruto complained he would get a whack with the stick and his training regimen for the day doubled. Needless to say, Naruto soon developed a taste for greens. Naruto's chakra reserves had become huge. The boy already had more chakra than most kages.

The amazing thing though, was his control. Ever since Naruto and Mugetsu destroyed the fox, Naruto's control had risen. Now the blonde had control slightly below Tsunade's, though not by much. This allowed Naruto to branch in a field Jiraiya had thought he would never perform, genjutsu. Jiraiya had Naruto read books on genjutsu so that he would know the proper methods to dispel them, seeing as he was being targeted by Akatsuki's genjutsu master Itachi Uchiha. Naruto however, also knew the concept behind genjutsu, and decided to try it out and prank Jiraiya on their next meal. Summoning Ma, as Jiraiya liked to call her, the two swapped Jiraiya's bowl of stew with Ma's special grub stew while the sage was gone, and when he came back Naruto cast a genjutsu that altered Jiraiya's sight, taste, and smell to whatever he wanted. Jiraiya was none the wiser and the two dug in. Halfway through the meal, Ma showed up, much to Jiraiya's confusion, and said how her little lad finally got a taste for her grub stew, and Naruto cancelled the genjutsu. The look on Jiraiya's face, and the subsequent spewing, had made the punishment completely worth it. After that, Naruto was being trained in genjutsu, and had quite a knack for it. Mugetsu also found she could cast genjutsu as well. Now, the three were headed towards the land of Iron, an all samurai land. Jiraiya had heard through his spy network that Akatsuki may be purchasing shipments of the special chakra conductive metal mined there. Soon the climate got colder, and snow started falling as they reached the city all samurai were trained.

"All right Naruto, you and Mugetsu stay in these woods and do not leave until I come and get you, which should be a week. Normally I'd take you with me, but samurai are very distrustful of ninja so it would be better if you stayed here. You're close enough that I can come get you should there be trouble, and you're far enough that the samurai won't bump into you. Now, you can train in lava style element fusion until I get back, just nothing too big., got it?" Naruto nodded in affirmative, and Jiraiya headed down to the city.

"Okay, let's do this." said Naruto as he unrolled the scroll Koyuki had given him two months ago.

"_It says as you perform the jutsu, you have to split the necessary chakra into one part wind, two parts water. So the necessary ratio for lava would be one part earth and two parts fire." _said Mugetsu as she looked through the scroll.

"Not only that, but we'd need to know the proper handsign chain for the jutsu we want to make. Let's get the feel of chakra fusion first before we jump to jutsus." Mugetsu nodded at this, and Naruto brought one hundred shadow clones into existence.

"All right, you all know what to do. When one of you makes progress, create a clone then dispel."

"Got it boss!" was the resounding cry, and they all got to work.

…...

Five days had passed and Naruto was well on his way to creating his third lava style technique. It couldn't be tested however, as the jutsu would be large enough to attract attention from the samurai. Currently, Naruto was playing shogi with Mugetsu while she went hunting, using their mental bond to convey the game to each other. Just as Naruto was about to move Mugetsu's piece, all his instincts screamed at him to move. Doing so, a kunai lodged itself in the center of the shogi board at an angle that would have struck the blonde in the back of the head had he not dodged. It was the exploding tag on the kunai, however, that got Naruto worried. Leaping farther back, Naruto managed to avoid the explosion, and whirled in the direction of his attacker, kunai drawn. On a branch was a person in a black trench coat with a large hood, blocking the person's face with shadow.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I have come to kill you." said the person, who Naruto could now tell was a woman by the sound of her voice.

"Why? What have I done? I haven't attacked a large clan, or made a big name for myself. Why is someone out for my head?" Naruto asked, confused.

"It is not you, rather your clan, that must die. You are the last known Uzumaki, as such, my grandfather has ordered your demise lest you become a threat in the future." Naruto's eyes widened. He had a clan? And they were dangerous enough for someone to want to kill him before he could revive it?

"If I may ask," said Naruto, hoping to get some information, "who is your grandfather, so that I may know just how serious the threat on my life is."

"Certainly, he is the ruler of Rain, but you would know him as Hanzo the Salamander." All the gears in Naruto's head hit the brakes upon hearing that name. Jiraiya had told Naruto all about Hanzo, and if that man was after his head, Naruto had to watch his back big time.

"_Mugetsu, get back here right now. I'm under attack and I might need your help." _Mugetsu said nothing, but Naruto knew she was coming back.

"So I guess there's no way around it then. Looks like I'll have to fight you, but not here. We're too close to the samurai village for comfort, and we wouldn't want to alert them."

"True. Follow me, Naruto. I know where we can fight." With that the assassin led Naruto west, away from the samurai city, and closer to the borders of the land of rain. Naruto gave Mugetsu directions so that she could follow. Soon they reached a large rocky area with a cliff face on one side. The two ninja leaped into the area, facing each other impassively.

"How do I know this isn't an ambush?" asked Naruto.

"We of the Hattori clan always fight with honor. There is no honor in relying on numbers when they are not needed. Furthermore, you have shown honor by facing the threat of death instead of running. I shall always fight one who shows such honor fairly." Naruto didn't know whether to be flattered or worried.

"Before we begin, may I know the name of my attacker?" Naruto asked. The woman responded by removing her trench coat, revealing her to be wearing a very revealing outfit, showing off her beautiful figure and accentuating her long midnight black hair. All she wore in the way of clothing was a pair of extremely short red shorts, a red sash hanging from the front of them. There was nothing covering her chest except an armoured red bra that nicely accentuated her C-cup breasts. She wore red toeless ninja sandals, and armoured red fingerless gloves with the symbol of the hidden rain village on them. In her hands was a small scythe with a long chain attached to the handle, with a weight at the end. Naruto recognized the weapon as a Kusarigama.

"I am Getsuhime Hattori, and you Naruto Uzumaki will die by my hand." With that declaration, the woman shot at Naruto at impressive speeds, and threw the Kusarigama at the blonde. Said blonde managed to dodge the blade, and blocked the second strike with a Kunai. On the third strike the tip of the scythe cut into Naruto's shoulder. Knowing he would get slaughtered in a weapons fight against this girl, Naruto avoided the fourth strike, and tried putting some distance between the two, but Getsuhime was much too fast and could easily close whatever distance Naruto tried putting between them. On the fifth strike, Naruto's luck ran out, and the scythe blade sunk deep into his chest. Naruto let out a gasp of pain, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"A shadow clone?" Getsuhime asked in shock, then dodged to the side as Naruto came at her from behind with a Rasengan. Whipping the kusarigama at Naruto once more, she successfully sliced the blonde's shoulder open, only for him to disappear in smoke once more.

"Earth style: Flowing mud river!" Naruto shouted from behind Getsuhime and slammed his hands to the ground. The ground liquified into slippery mud which rushed down and caught Getsuhime in it's flow. While the girl floundered another Naruto flipped through handsigns and called out, "Fire Style: Dragon flame bombs!" and used the jutsu to ignite the river of mud. When the flames died down, Naruto saw that he had only incinerated a log, and was dispelled when a Kusarigama sliced his throat open.

"Stop hiding behind your clones Uzumaki and fight like a real man!" Getsuhime shouted out.

"Very well, Fire Style: Dragon fireballs!" Getsuhime whipped around behind her and saw two massive flaming dragon heads racing towards her, Managing to dodge, the rain nin cast out her Kusarigama once more, only for the blade to be deflected by a shield of chakra.

"Well, this is my first time using this and I gotta say, this is awesome." Getsuhime then saw Naruto wearing some kind of ANBU like shinobi armour. Lashing out with her weapon once more, Getsuhime was met with the same result. A wall of chakra would appear and block the blade from striking the blonde.

"So I can't use weaponry to slay you. Then I'll use jutsu, Water Style: Water shockwave Jutsu!" Getsuhime shouted out, and unleashed a torrent of water from her mouth. The water only came up to Naruto's knees, but he knew the purpose of this attack was not to flood out the entire area, but provide a source of water for water jutsus. Getsuhime started flipping through a long chain of handsigns, and Naruto knew what was coming. Flipping through his own signs, Naruto called out his jutsu just as Getsuhime called hers.

"Earth style: Earth dragon stone cannon!"

"Water Style: Water dragon Jutsu!" A huge serpentine dragon composed entirely of water shot at the blonde ninja, and was met by a just as large earth dragon firing boulders from it's mouth at high speed. The boulders tore through the opposing jutsu and slammed down on Getsuhime, who managed to substitute with a water clone before she was crushed. Naruto decided to up his game. Rushing up the cliff face, Naruto whipped through handsigns while focusing and merging his fire and earth affinities together.

"Lava style: Lava bullets!" Naruto called out, and fired six medium sized globs of super hot lava from his mouth at the stunned rain nin.

"_Lava style ninjutsu? I wasn't told he knew element fusion." _Thought Getsuhime as she dodged the lava bullets. Deciding to get in close to prevent more jutsu from the Uzumaki, Getsuhime dashed for the cliff face. Naruto flipped through six handsigns before slamming his hands down on the cliff face.

"Lava style: Volcanic river!" He called out, and a huge section of the cliff melted into lava and rushed down to meet Getsuhime. The raven haired woman leaped away from the cliff face before she could be struck by the burning liquid. As soon as the lava struck the water below, a huge cloud of steam erupted from the area of contact. Naruto saw that Getsuhime had avoided the jutsu, and decided to pull out all the stops.

"This hasn't been tested, so I hope this works." He said as he flipped through a long chain of handsigns. Getsuhime once again rushed to the cliff at high speed, intent on stopping Naruto from completing the jutsu, but a large torrent of flame made her jump away. Getsuhime looked in the direction of the attack and saw a large black winged lizard.

"_A summon?" _thought the rain nin.

"Thanks for the distraction Mugetsu." Naruto said as he flipped through the last of the signs and held it on dragon.

"Lava style: Melting earth god!" Naruto called out, only for nothing to happen. Then a large rumble was felt, and a large area of the cliff below Naruto started glowing red hot. Getsuhime could only gasp in shock, as a huge serpentine dragon of obsidian burst through the heated area. Rivulets of glowing hot magma seemed to flow through cracks in the dragon's body like blood. Letting out a roar, showing the inside of the dragon to be glowing white with the sheer heat of the jutsu, the lava dragon shot at Getsuhime with incredible swiftness despite it's size.

"_Mugetsu get up here. I don't want you getting caught in this jutsu." _Naruto conveyed to Mugetsu, who swiftly obeyed, flying up to where Naruto was and adhering to the cliff face with chakra. Getsuhime was doing all she could to avoid the melting earth god, but nothing worked. It smashed through every jutsu she threw at it, it barreled through anything she tried to use as cover, and everywhere it passed, it melted into lava with it's sheer heat. Finally, Getsuhime was cornered, and could only wait for the agony of incineration.

"Surrender, and I'll let you live." Naruto called down to her. The rain nin considered her options and decided.

"Yes, I surrender Naruto Uzumaki." she called back. Naruto then released the jutsu, and the lava dragon fell to the ground, hardening into obsidian. Naruto leaped down in front of the rain nin and with eye contact alone, put her in a sleeping genjutsu. Hoisting the girl onto his shoulder, Naruto and Mugetsu left the area back to their campsite, Naruto grabbing Getsuhime's trench coat as he passed it. When They reached it, Naruto was glad to see his tent and supplies were undamaged, though he was going to need a new shogi board. Naruto began tying the girl securely to a tree, and couldn't help but look at the girl's amazing figure.

"Damn it. Not a pervert, not a pervert..." was Naruto's mantra as he finished tying the girl up. Once she was secure, Naruto decided to find out what her objectives were. Linking his mind with hers, Naruto proceeded to go through all the information she had on him. The results surprised him, Hanzo had set Jiraiya's information up, all to get the blonde out in the open. He had sent Getsuhime, since the girl was good at what she did. When Naruto had sifted through what they knew of him, he let out a sigh of relief. Their information was rather incomplete. All they knew for sure was that he could summon massive amounts of shadow clones and knew how to summon toads. They had no idea he was the former jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, or any of his skill at this point in time.

"Well, so far all they know about me is only what I've made public while in the leaf village. That's a relief." Naruto said to himself. Unsealing a pot and some food from a storage scroll, Naruto built a fire and started making a stew. As the stew was finishing, Naruto decided to wake up his prisoner. Dispelling the genjutsu, the raven haired woman woke from the effects.

"Where am I?" she asked, still slightly dazed.

"Back at my camp." Naruto replied, cause the rain nin to jerk awake.

"why am I tied up? Wait, you're trying to get information out of me, well I'm not talking." Naruto smirked at this.

"Woman, I've already got all the information I wanted." Getsuhime's eyes widened at this. "Relax, all I wanted was the information you guys had on me, which was pretty outdated." Getsuhime's eyes narrowed.

"And you took nothing else?" she asked, and Naruto shrugged.

"I took the details of your mission, but that was it." he replied, then turned his attention back to the stew, which was finished.

"Hungry?" Naruto asked the girl.

"Yes, but I don't think you'll untie me." Naruto chuckled a bit.

"I will if you promise not to attack me. You said you were honorable, so I'm betting you're one who always keeps their word."

"I surrendered didn't I? That means I'm not going to attack you."

"Fine, fine, but you're not getting your weapons back, I can't fully trust you yet." With that, Naruto untied the ropes binding the rain nin to the tree. Passing her a bowl of stew, the two ate in silence.

"So how do I get your grandfather off my back?" Naruto asked after a few minutes of silence.

"You can't, he'll just send more skilled assassins after you, and eventually if you're still not dead, he'll come deal with you personally."

"Oh come on, there's gotta be something I can do?" Getsuhime looked thoughtful for a minute, then a sly grin split her face.

"Well there is one thing. If you marry a member of our clan, it will create a blood alliance, and grandfather won't attack you if you're on the same side." Naruto's jaw hit the floor. He wasn't expecting that.

"And," continued Getsuhime, "I'd be more than happy to marry you Naruto." It was a good thing there was nothing in Naruto's mouth at the time, otherwise he would have been spitting it out when she said that.

"Wait, what! First you try to kill me, and now you're saying you're willing to marry me? Are all the women of your clan this strange?" If the rain nin was offended she didn't show it.

"Naruto, we of the Hattori clan value strength, and you are very strong. The women of our clan are tasked with finding strong men to marry, for we carry and bring the next generation into this world, and they must be strong for the clan."

"So you only want me for my strength? That's pretty shallow, and I make it a point to get to know a girl first before I jump into anything." At this, Getsuhime's grin went from sly, to predatory.

"Oh so that's how it is, well I'm sure you'd love to 'get to know me'." she said seductively, causing Naruto's face to flush red like a certain Hyuuga.

"Whoa whoa! Not like that you crazy lady. I meant getting to know them during a date." Naruto was spared from the current conversation when he heard a huge commotion coming from the samurai city.

"Uh, excuse me for a minute, I got to go see what's going on." With that, Naruto headed towards the city. Using a genjutsu that made the caster invisible to anyone without an active eye based kekkei genkai, Naruto slipped into the city undetected. After ten minutes of information gathering Naruto had found the cause of the commotion. Apparently, a rougue group of samurai had tried to assassinate Mifune and take power for themselves, but with the help of Jiraiya, they had failed. However, Mifune had been poisoned, and was currently dying. Returning back to camp, Naruto dropped the genjutsu.

"How good are you with poisons?" he asked Getsuhime.

"Extremely. You forget, I'm an assassin, so I must have extremely good knowledge of various poisons and antidotes." she replied.

"Alright then, I need you to come with me." Grabbing Getsuhime by the hand, the two dashed down to the city. Immediately they were stopped by two samurai.

"Halt, none are allowed into the city at this time."

"About that, I might have a solution to your problem." The two samurai were helmeted, so Naruto was unable to see their facial expressions, but he was sure, they were glaring at him with suspicion.

"And just how do you know about our problem?" One of the guards asked.

"I have keen ears, and I was waiting for my sensei Jiraiya to return when I heard the commotion. My friend here is quite well versed in poisons, and may be able to provide a cure for Mifune, or at least slow the poison's progress down so that a cure can be attained." The two samurai looked at the girl, then each other, and nodded.

"this way." they said, and led the way to Mifune's chambers.

…...

Jiraiya let out a sigh. Things were not going well at all. First off, the information had been a complete dead end. Akatsuki had not been making any purchases within the land of iron at all. Then the whole assassination attempt on Mifune happened, and now the old samurai was dying a slow painful death while the healers were desperately trying to come up with a cure. Jiraiya was broken out of his thoughts when the chamber doors were opened, and in stepped Naruto and a woman Jiraiya did not know. Upon seeing the girl's state of dress, Jiraiya almost fell into pervert mode, but managed to squash his urges down, this was serious.

"What are you doing here brat, and who's the woman?" Jiraiya asked the blonde.

"Sorry sensei, I know you told me to stay, but when I heard the commotion I had to do something, and Getsuhime here might be able to help." Naruto replied. Getsuhime said nothing. Walking up to Mifune's unconscious form, Getsuhime placed a hand over his head to determine his temperature, then opened an eye to check the pupils. After a bit more studying, Getsuhime nodded to herself.

"The poison used was an extract from a special salamander known as the fire blood Salamander. The antidote is difficult to make, but I have some on me seeing as I use the same poison." taking a vial out of a pocket in her bra, much to Jiraiya's hidden delight, Getsuhime poured the contents down Mifune's throat.

"There," she said, "that should do it. All he needs now is rest, and he'll be fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I must leave. I'm due back from a mission, and my grandfather does not accept tardiness. Oh and Naruto, my offer still stands." and with a seductive wink in Naruto's direction, left via body flicker technique.

"Now what was that all about?" asked Jiraiya.

"It's quite a story sensei." replied Naruto with a sigh.

…...

A week after Naruto's fight with Getsuhime, Mifune had fully recovered. In thanks for helping save his life, the samurai general ordered a sword be forged for the blonde. Naruto gave the weaponsmith a handful of Mugetsu's shed scales and asked that they be incorporated into the forging. Using the scales, along with the metal of a fallen star and chakra conductive iron, the sword forged was the finest ever in the history of the land of iron. The blade was so black, it seemed to suck all light within it. The guard was a circle with a dark brass serpentine dragon coiled around the inside. The hilt was black, with crimson dyed sharkskin underneath the black threading. The sheath was wooden, and painted to be as black as the blade. Jiraiya had also added seals that would prevent any damage from happening to the blade. Naruto then took up kenjutsu in his training, and was taught the way of the blade by the samurai. Naruto also asked for a sword to be crafted for a friend of his, and gave the specifications of the blade. When it was done, Naruto sent it via summon. Eventually, Naruto and Jiraiya left the land of iron. When they left the country, Jiraiya demanded to know who that girl was. So Naruto told Jiraiya all about Getsuhime and her mission, and when he was done, Jiraiya looked very worried.

"This isn't good Naruto. It was bad enough with Akatsuki after you, now Hanzo wants your head. I didn't want to reveal this information yet until you were a jonin, but under the new circumstances it can't be helped. Naruto, it's about time I told you about your parents."

…...

Sasuke was sitting up in a tree, gazing up at the night sky. Orochimaru was training him, but not in what he needed. The snake was currently trying to get Sasuke to take certain augmentation drugs that were no doubt laced with some kind of mind control serum. Sasuke wanted power sure, but not if said power came with a collar and leash. He would not play dog, and that is exactly what Orochimaru wanted him to do. All the sudden, there was a poof of smoke, and a small toad appeared beside Sasuke.

"Yo, you Sasuke Uchiha?" the toad asked.

"Yes, I am." Sasuke replied, and the toad unstrapped a long parcel from it's back.

"Package for you from our summoner." the toad said, and handed the parcel to Sasuke. It then dispelled itself back to the summon realm, leaving Sasuke alone once more. Opening the parcel, Sasuke found himself holding a simple, yet beautiful chokato. The sheath and hilt were pure white, with a black stripe running down the middle on both sides. The Uchiha clan crest was situated in the center of the hilt. Drawing the blade, Sasuke let out an appreciative whistle. The blade reflected the moonlight and seemed to shine in a myriad of colors. The metal also looked like quality material was used. Sasuke then noticed a small note sitting in the sword wrappings. Picking it up, Sasuke unfolded it and read the contents.

"_Dear bastard:_

_Happy birthday you big jerk, not like you deserve it for slamming a chidori through my shoulder. So how's life in the snake den treating you, still have your virginity or has the snake pedo taken that too? Hope you're getting that power you wanted, because I'm getting way stronger than before. Hope we run into each other again."_

_Til our paths cross: The dobe._

Giving the letter a second read, Sasuke let a ghost of a smile touch his lips. The idiot had actually remembered his birthday.

"Hn, dobe." Was Sasuke's reply, and the last Uchiha dropped to the ground and returned to the underground base, sword in hand, and a smirk on his face.

…...

**A/N:**

**Okay, important announcement. My life is going to be getting much busier come Friday. Therefore, all stories are on temporary hiatus until further notice. As soon as my life calms down I'll be back to updating, but I myself have no idea when that will be. Now that that has been taken care of, what do you all think? Leave a review and share your thoughts people.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Six months had passed since Naruto had left the land of Iron and had learned of his heritage, and to say he was shocked of his parent's identity was an understatement. Naruto had gone on a rampage when he was told that the Fourth Hokage, the man who had stuffed the Kyuubi in his gut and had left him living a life of solitude, was his own father. Jiraiya had managed to calm the blonde down with Mugetsu's help, and told the boy of his father's reasoning for doing what he did. Eventually Naruto forgave his father, but was still slightly bitter about the whole thing. Naruto then learned of his mother's clan, the Uzumaki clan. The clan itself was related to the Senju clan, and had a bloodline limit that gave them incredible longevity and in rare cases, cellular regeneration abilities. Naruto was tested for this, and possessed the ability. Furthermore, Naruto discovered by complete accident he possessed a second bloodline limit. He had been practicing a high speed movement technique to use in his kenjutsu style, but when he performed it, the results weren't what he was expecting. Instead of shooting forward in extreme speed, Naruto suddenly warped twenty five meters forward, much to both his and Jiraiya's shock. When the two tested it out they found that Naruto was doing it naturally, indicating it was a bloodline limit. The bloodline allowed Naruto to move through space-time slipstreams, much like his father's flying thunder god technique, but only in a straight line up to a maximum of twenty five metres. Furthermore, Naruto had to be able to see where he wanted to go, otherwise the technique wouldn't work. However, Naruto found that he could use Mugetsu's vision as well to reach his destination, and could pass through physical objects in his path. The blonde immediately incorporated this into his kenjutsu style, creating a style he called, the dance of the new moon, which Jiraiya called the most devastating kenjutsu style ever developed in history.

Naruto had also followed the path of his Uzumaki ancestors, and had taken up sealing. Using his shadow clones, Naruto was able to get years worth of training done in days, and had shown extreme proficiency in the art of seals. Jiraiya and Naruto had also started taking freelance missions, so that the blonde could gain precious battle experience. Four months after the events in the samurai village, Naruto asked Jiraiya a question that had been plaguing him for some time, he wanted to know what love felt like. This question had shocked Jiraiya, and the man asked why he wanted to know. Naruto's response was that he had never known love. He knew what kindness felt like, he knew what compassion and joy felt like, but he had never experienced love before. Jiraiya and Mugetsu were horrified at this, and the former asked why Naruto said he was crushing on his pink haired team-mate Sakura, when he didn't understand what love was like. Naruto replied that when he had seen all of Sasuke's fangirls proclaim their love for the boy, he thought that was what love was. Jiraiya was appalled, and started teaching Naruto on the ways of love, non perversely mind you. Soon, Naruto started reading romance novels to try and understand what love was like, but still couldn't truly understand it. Jiraiya then realized something very important during Naruto's lessons on love and romantic relationships. Since Naruto carried two bloodline limits, and was the last of an official recognized clan, the leaf village council would want to put Naruto under the Clan Restoration Act, or CRA for short. When the blonde asked what that was, Jiraiya explained that it was a law that allowed the last male heir of a recognized clan to practice polygamy to keep the clan from dying out. Naruto would have to have at least four women of his choice to marry before he turned eighteen, or the village council was entitled to choose for him, and therein lied the danger. Jiraiya explained that the council would try to set him up with family members so that they would earn prestige and rights to the clan for being in relation to it. This scared Naruto greatly, and he was scared even further when Jiraiya explained that some council members like Danzo would try to get a hold of his bloodlines to use as weapons. Jiraiya made sure that Naruto knew every section and fundamental of the CRA by heart so that the council could not ensnare the boy with it.

During the past six months, Naruto hit a large growth spurt. That, combined with his much healthier diet, caused the boy to shoot up to an impressive 5'9". Due to his physical training regime, Naruto also started gaining some serious muscle definition, becoming very well toned. This combined with his roguish good looks, and his whisker marks that added a feral quality to him, Naruto soon became an extreme heart throb to the ladies. Due to his growth, Naruto had to buy new clothing. With Jiraiya and Mugetsu's help, Naruto got a new outfit that no longer made him look like a neon kunai target, but a serious shinobi. He wore black shinobi sandals along with black ANBU style pants. He wore a slate grey short sleeved shirt, with the Uzumaki clan symbol, a white spiral, sewn into the back. The outfit was finished with a cloak like the one his father wore, with some major differences. Instead of it being white, it was black, and instead of flames at the bottom, two bright orange serpentine dragons rose from the hem up to the shoulders while facing each other and outstretching a claw towards each other. Held in the two claws was the Uzumaki white spiral. Jiraiya had complained a bit about the orange, but Naruto would not budge on the matter, so the toad sannin gave in. The last thing Naruto decided to do with his looks was grow out his hair. He had found that while the majority of his hair grew in spikes like his dad's, the back grew straight like his mom's. Since the Uzumakis prided their long red hair, Naruto decided to let his straight growing hair lengthen as well per clan tradition. So far it had reached his shoulders, but Naruto wouldn't be satisfied until it reached the middle of his back. However, the biggest shock of the entire six months happened at the very end.

"What! What do you mean you refuse?" Asked an extremely shocked and curious Jiraiya.

"Exactly what I said sensei, I refuse to learn the flying thunder god technique." said Naruto. The three were currently headed to the village hidden in the mist for two things. The first was to warn the Mizukage of the threat Akatsuki posed, and the second was to check the validity of a rumour that Akatsuki's base of operations was located in the mist village or the land of water. On the way, Jiraiya proposed that Naruto learn his father's most powerful technique, but the blonde immediately refused.

"Why on earth would you refuse to learn the technique that made your father famous. If you learned it, you could take anyone on. You would be hailed as the second yellow flash, and entire armies would tremble from your name."

"That's just it sensei. If I learn the flying thunder god, then I'll put myself into a shadow I shall never be able to get out of." Upon seeing his godfather's confused face, Naruto decided to elaborate.

"Sensei, if I learn the flying thunder god, everyone will start calling me the second yellow flash, or the son of the fourth. No one will know me as Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki. I don't want to constantly live in my father's shadow, using the title he had earned. I want to be known as something entirely different, something that will help me carve my own path. Until I do this, I will not learn the flying thunder god." Jiraiya was at a loss for words upon hearing this. Once he thought about it, he could easily see the reasoning behind the boy's decision. It all had to do with one simple decision on Naruto's part; he refused to hide. Naruto would not hide his heritage, despite the fact that his father made many enemies. He was going to start introducing himself as a Namikaze as well as an Uzumaki, and that alone would put him in his father's shadow. Furthermore, when they returned to the leaf village, Naruto would not hide Mugetsu. Jiraiya's respect for his apprentice only grew with this decision, but the toad sannin couldn't help but fear for his godson's life.

"Naruto, I understand where you're coming from, but still. If you're going to claim your heritage you will be the target of many assassination attempts. Bounty hunters will be all over you for the huge price the stone village will no doubt put on your head, and let's not forget Akatsuki. Even if you reveal the Kyuubi is dead and gone, they will hunt you down for ruining their plans, and this includes your precious people." Naruto winced at that, but steadied his resolve.

"Still, I refuse to hide who I am, I'll still protect those precious to me without that technique." Jiraiya knew there would be no changing the blonde's mind.

"All right Naruto. Still, I'm worried that without that technique, you won't be able to protect your precious people and future family from all the enemies you'll have. I don't want you to regret this decision in the future because your pride got someone close to you killed."

"I understand sensei, and maybe I'll change my mind later in the future, but for now I will not learn that technique." Thirty minutes later, the trio reached the ocean that separated the mist village from the mainland.

"Well brat, looks like we're going to have to wait for the ferry." said Jiraiya as he looked to the horizon.

"No need sensei." replied Naruto. Cutting his finger and drawing blood, Naruto walked far enough into the ocean and flipped through six handsigns.

"Summoning Jutsu!" and in a massive spray of water, Arashiryu broke the surface of the ocean.

"**Naruto, you haven't summoned us for quite some time. Why is this?" **the sea serpent questioned. Naruto bowed to the summon in respect.

"Forgive me Arashiryu, but I have yet to fight a battle over the ocean, and I don't think your kind can survive on dry land. As soon as I get the chance, I will summon your clansmen for aid." The sea serpent gave a chuckle.

"**True, we can't fight without water. Very well then, what do you need the sea serpents for?"**

"My sensei and I require transport to the mist village, and we do not wish for a repeat of the last time we traveled by ship. If you would, may you transport us to the mist village?"

"**I will take you there, but remember this, we sea serpents will not tolerate being summoned for such chores on a regular basis. Do you understand?" **Naruto once again bowed to the summon.

"I understand Arashiryu. Thank you for your generosity, and the next I summon you it will be for something serious." Nodding, the sea serpent lowered himself down so that Naruto could get on it. Jiraya too got on, and Mugetsu chose to fly instead. Soon, the sea serpent shot across the water towards the mist village. What was normally a four hour trip took only one, and soon the fog that perpetually shrouded the village could be seen. Mugetsu then changed course and hid in a dense woodland a ways away from the village, while Naruto and Jiraiya reached the shore. Once there, Naruto thanked his summon once again and dismissed him.

"I forgot you even had that summon brat." said Jiraiya, and the two walked towards the village. Once they reached the harbour gates, they were stopped by the two gatekeeping chunin.

"Halt, state your names and business within the mist village." the first one stated.

"I am Jiraiya of the sannin, and I am here for an official meeting with your Mizukage." said the toad sannin.

"Identification please." said the second chunin, and both leaf nins presented their passports, though it took them a bit to verify Naruto's identification. Nodding, the two allowed them passage and bid them a pleasant stay in the mist village. The two then headed to the Mizukage's office and Manor. As they walked, Naruto felt multiple presences tailing them on the rooftops.

"Sensei, we're being followed." said Naruto.

"Don't worry, that's just mist's SHARK unit. It's their version of ANBU. They're just keeping an eye on us to make sure we're not going to places we're not supposed to be." Nodding, Naruto walked on in silence. Entering the Mizukage's manor, they went to the second floor and were met by two men. One had two paper charm earrings and an eyepatch, while the other wore glasses and looked quite nervous. The nervous one also had a large sword wrapped in bandages strapped to his back, and Naruto figured he was part of the seven swordsmen of the mist.

"Who are you two, and what is your business with lady Mizukage?" asked the man with the eyepatch. Jiriaya then stepped forward. "I am Jiraiya of the Sannin, and I am here for a meeting with the Mizukage."

"And you?" the man asked Naruto.

"Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki." Naruto answered, making the two men flinch back in surprise.

"Are you in anyway related to the late Fourth Hokage of the leaf village?"

"Yes, he is my father."

"_And so it begins, hopefully the brat can survive." _Jiraiya thought to himself. The two guard's jaws were on the verge of hitting the floor from Naruto's reply.

"Wait there." said the man, and he and the other man entered the office, closing the door behind them. After a few minutes, the doors opened and the nervous man allowed them entry. Entering the office, the two walked up to the Mizukage and bowed in respect.

"Lady Mizukage, thank you for taking the time for this." said Jiraiya. Naruto took the time to study the Mizukage. She had long auburn hair, with some of it tied into a topknot. She had stunning turquoise eyes, and wore a blue dress. All in all, she was very beautiful. The Mizukage smiled.

"The pleasure's all mine Jiraiya, and please, call me Mei." she replied.

"Very well, are you familiar with the group known as Akatsuki?" asked the toad Sannin.

"I've heard about them yes, a group of mercenaries for hire that will do any mission so long as the pay is good."

"That is merely a fundraising operation of theirs. After a bit of digging I found their true motives, they are after the Biju." That got Mei's attention.

"What do they want with them?" asked Mei.

"Unfortunately I do not know, but whatever it is, it can't be good. Confirmed members of the Akatsuki are Itachi Uchiha, and Kisame Hoshigaki. Both these men are S class missing nin." Naruto noticed the nervous swordsman stiffen a bit when he heard Kisame's name. Mei's eyes had widened slightly upon hearing the name.

"I see. What do these Akatsuki look like?" she asked.

"They can be identified by the cloaks they wear, black with red clouds. This is the standard Akatsuki uniform." Mei nodded.

"Anything else Jiraiya?"

"That's all Lady Mizukage, just be warned, all members of Akatsuki are S class missing nin and they travel in pairs. Thank you once again for your time, it was most appreciated." Jiraiya and Naruto turned to leave, but the Mizukage stopped them.

"One moment Jiraiya, is it true that your student there is the son of the fourth Hokage?" asked Mei.

"Yes, I am." replied Naruto. Mei merely smiled.

"I figured as much, the resemblance is uncanny. Just take away the whisker marks and your practically a carbon copy."

"If that's all Lady Mizukage, then we'll be off." said Jiraya, and the two leaf nins left the office. Mei settled back in her chair and smiled.

"The boy looked very strong, just a few years older and he would be perfect." said Mei as she returned to battle the bane of all kages, paperwork. The man with the eyepatch gave out a sigh.

"Women these days. Back in my day a woman would do all she could to get a good man, not talk about them behind closed doors." This turned out to be the wrong thing to say, as Mei only heard a few pieces, and what she heard did not please her.

"Ao," she addressed the man a little too sweetly for his liking, "shut up, or I'll kill you." she finished. Ao was sweating nervously, _"What did I do?" _he thought.

…...

Naruto and Jiraiya left the Mizukage's manor and once more entered the foggy streets of the mist village.

" All right Naruto, I've got to get information from my contacts here about that rumour. Hopefully Akatsuki isn't bunking in mist or water country, otherwise I fear I brought you into the lion's den. You can wander around if you like, just be careful and don't start anything." Jiraiya then handed the boy a slip of paper with an address on it. "That's the address of the hotel we'll be staying at, you're a big boy so I won't set a specific time you need to be back at, just try not to come back too late." With that, Jiraiya left Naruto to do whatever he pleased. Naruto started wandering and taking in the sights. It was nice to see that mist was under new management, so there were no longer any bloodline purges going on. Naruto thought back to Haku, the one who had told him about the purges, and how it had destroyed his family.

"_I wish you were still alive Haku, then you might've been able to find happiness in this new mist village." _Naruto thought to himself. Then he noticed a crowd had started to gather a bit ahead of him. Curious, Naruto gently made his way into the crowd, but couldn't see through the press of bodies.

"Excuse me sir," Naruto said to a man, getting his attention, "I'm a visitor here, and I was wondering what the commotion is all about?" The man gave off a smile.

"Well son, what's going on right now is the public beating of a monster." Naruto's eyes darkened.

"A monster you say?" the blonde asked. The man nodded.

"Yes, you see, her clansmen were warmongering savages that attacked our home solely for the purpose of slaughter itself. They killed many families of ours, but in the end the shinobi of our village killed them all, except this one. The Mizukage forbids us from killing her, so we beat her to make sure she knows the suffering her and her clansmen caused us." On the outside, Naruto wore a mask of indifference, but inside he was seething with rage. This reminded him too much of his childhood, and although the civilians never laid a hand on the boy, the hostility and solitude they had heaped on him was just as bad. Naruto made his way deeper through the crowd, until finally he came to the center. There he saw something that made his blood boil. Two men were beating a helpless woman on the ground mercilessly with metal clubs. The most sickening thing was however, that there were SHARK presences around, yet they did nothing to stop this brutality.

"Hey." called Naruto, trying to get the attention of the two, but they didn't respond.

"Hey!" Naruto called again, louder this time, and the two men stopped and looked at the blonde.

"Can I join?" asked Naruto. The two men looked at each other, shrugged, and beckoned him over. Naruto came up to them, and one of them handed the blonde his club. The two then left to join the crowd, leaving Naruto with the girl. Naruto looked down and studied the girl. She had pale skin, though it was marred by horrible bruises, and it was barely covered by the rags she wore. She was obviously malnourished, if her body was anything to go by. She had a beautiful face, though it too was marred by horrible bruises. Her hair was snow white, but it was stained brown from dirt and filth. Her eyes were closed, but there were red markings under them, with two dots of the same red on her forehead. Naruto couldn't place it, but he was sure he had seen this girl, or someone who looked a lot like her, somewhere before. He could hear the girl's whimpers and pleas to not hurt her, and Naruto was filled with fury at these villagers. Throwing down the rod with a clang, Naruto grabbed the girl and vanished before anyone could even react. When they got over their shock, they immediately started searching for their quarry, but Naruto was long gone.

…...

Naruto warped into a secluded alley, and after making sure the coast was clear, set the girl gently down. The girl opened her eyes, revealing them to be a pale blue, and when she saw Naruto, immediately scurried back.

"No, please, stay away, don't hurt me." She pleaded. Naruto slowly approached, making the girl cower and curl into herself. When he reached the girl, he made four handsigns, and his left hand became covered in pale green chakra. The cowering girl suddenly felt a cool sensation pass across her skin, and wherever it passed, it took the pain with it. Opening her eyes and uncurling herself a bit to see what the blonde boy was doing, she saw the boy running a glowing hand across her body, the bruises of the beating earlier fading away like they were never there to begin with.

"What are you doing?" the girl questioned, and it was obvious to Naruto that the girl had never received treatment or healing for any of her previous beatings.

"I'm using a jutsu to heal you." said the blonde.

"Heal me? Why?" asked the girl in slight fear.

"Because, it's wrong for those people to beat you like that, and I can't stand the thought of someone being punished for something they never did." said Naruto in a gentle voice.

"They all say I deserve it, that my clan was a group of monsters and that I'm one too."Naruto finished the bruises on her body, and gently cupped a hand to her cheek to heal the bruises on her face.

"They're all fools, you are no monster. A monster is someone who enjoys killing. Yes, I agree with them when they say your clansmen were monsters, but they are completely wrong about you." The girl gazed up at the blonde, hope shimmering in her eyes. Naruto finished healing her face, and ended the jutsu.

"That's all I can do, is there anything still in pain." The girl shook her head. Satisfied, Naruto stood up to leave.

"Wait, who are you?" asked the girl.

"Call me Naruto." said the blonde.

"My name's Shirosakura."

"Well Shirosakura, I need to get back to my hotel room." and with that, Naruto started to leave, but was surprised when he heard footsteps following him. Turning, he saw Shirosakura following him.

"Have you no place to go? No home?" he asked the girl, and she shook her head.

"No, I have nowhere to go. I was hoping I could stay with you, seeing as you're the only one here who has ever shown kindness to me." Under normal circumstances, Naruto would have reacted rather comically to that, but he could only smile sadly at the girl.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's impossible. You see, I'm not from this village, so I can't bring you with me." Shirosakura looked down in sadness, and Naruto felt his heart go out to the girl.

"_Is this what you felt like, Haku? Was the only one who showed you any form of kindness Zabuza, and is this how you reacted?" _Naruto couldn't let this girl suffer. He knew just how hard this girl's loneliness was hitting her, and it was blatantly obvious that she was at the brink. If he left her like this, she would be destroyed by the fact she had made a friend, only for him to leave her to the wolves once more. Naruto had to get her out of Mist, or better yet, water country altogether. The problem was what the Mizukage would say. It was obvious the woman wanted Shirosakura for something, but what?

"Shirosakura, have you ever tried running away?" the blonde asked, hoping to get some more information on the situation.

"I've lost count how many times I've tried, but every time I get far away from the village, those masked men come and find me, and bring me back." Naruto mentally nodded. The Mizukage definitely wanted something from this girl, but what could it be? And that face of hers, Naruto swore he had seen that face, or at least an extremely similar one. Mugetsu sensed her partner's thoughts, and scanned through Naruto's memories, and found something.

"_Naruto, I think I've found what you're looking for." _she told the blonde, and brought the memory she had found to the forefront of his mind. Naruto then saw an image of a sixteen year old teenage male that looked like he could be Shirosakura's brother. Immediately, Naruto remembered who this man was, but more importantly, what this man could do.

"_So that's what the Mizukage wants, the revival of mist's most powerful bloodline. The Mizukage is probably aware of Shirosakura's treatment, but either can't do anything for the girl, or ignores her. I definitely have to get her out of here, lest some idiot decides to kill her or worse, she's made into a baby factory." _The question was however, how? How could he smuggle the Kaguya girl out of the village and country? Deciding to put that on the back burner for now, Naruto focused on the problem of keeping Shirosakura out of harms way for now. Then he got an idea.

"Shirosakura, is there anywhere you go to be alone, anywhere at all to get away from all the glares and beatings?" Shirosakura nodded.

"Yes, there's a little clearing in the woods that I go to to be alone sometimes. I'll take you there." Shirosakura then led Naruto to her secret clearing. On the way Naruto couldn't help but study the girl in front of him a little further. The Kaguya stood at 5' even, and looked to be around 14 years old. He then remembered something,

"_Mugetsu, follow us." _Naruto told his dragon.

"_Are you sure Naruto? She might be afraid and run, or she might tell someone about me."_

"_I'm pretty sure I can keep her here, and even if she told someone I doubt they'd listen." _With a mental nod, Mugetsu started heading towards Naruto. When the pair reached the clearing in the woods, Naruto surveyed the area. It was a medium sized clearing with a pristine pond to the left. A large tree grew beside the pond, with a branch that dipped into a shallow U above the clear water. A sprinkling of wildflowers littered the clearing, creating splashes of color in the plain, mist filled clearing. Naruto nodded in appreciation of the scenery.

"Shirosakura, do any of the masked nins bother you here?" Naruto asked, and the pale haired girl shook her head.

"No, only when I get too far away do they come after me. They don't bother me here." Naruto nodded, and brought out a storage scroll that held all his camping gear. Unsealing what he needed and setting it up, Naruto made a campsite for Shirosakura to stay in. The girl stared wide eyed at Naruto as he made things appear out of a scroll in poofs of smoke.

"All right Shirosakura, you'll be living in this campsite until I come get you at the end of the week. By then I should have a plan to get you out of here for good." Shirosakura's eyes widened in shock and surprise, then she rushed over and tackled the blonde in a hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." was the mantra of the pale haired girl. Naruto smiled, then felt Mugetsu approaching quickly.

"Shirosakura, a very close companion of mine is here. She might look scary, but she won't hurt you, okay?" Shirosakura nodded, and with a whoosh of air, Mugetsu flew into the clearing. Shirosakura's eyes went wide, and she hid behind Naruto, but when Mugetsu made no move to attack them, Shirosakura's fear gave way to curiosity. Naruto's promise that the dragon wouldn't hurt her also lessened her fear. Slowly approaching the dragon, Shirosakura tentatively reached a hand out to touch the black dragon, and Mugetsu touched her snout to the girl' outstretched palm. The girl flinched back slightly, but pressed her hand back to the snout

"See, she won't hurt you. Now Shirosakura, you'll be staying here with Mugetsu. I'll visit as much as I can, and if I don't, Mugetsu will be able to tell you why." said Naruto, and Shirosakura nodded. With that, Naruto warped back into Mist and eventually made it back to his hotel. He was still a bit early, so he had time to think about his current problem, just how was he going to get Shirosakura out of Mist?

…...

Sasuke strode into Orochimaru's throne room, a scowl across his face. What did the damn snake want this time? He should be spending his time training to kill his brother, not doing meaningless tasks and chores. Walking up to his sensei's throne, Sasuke gave a short bow, hating to do it.

"You summoned me Orochimaru sensei?" Sasuke asked, his voice carrying the displeasure of having his training interrupted. Orochimaru just smirked.

"Indeed Sasuke. I want you and ten others to go to the village hidden in the mist. It appears that there is one last living Kaguya, and a female at that. I want this Kaguya, and you shall bring her here." said the snake. True, Orochimaru did want the Kaguya, but what he really wanted was the girl's bloodline. He was hoping to have Sasuke impregnate the girl, fusing the Sharingan and the Dead Bone Pulse bloodlines together, creating an unstoppable shinobi. Orochimaru got giddy with excitement just thinking about it.

"Very well sensei, who am I being sent with?" asked Sasuke.

…...

"No, no, no, NO!" screamed Naruto, crumpling up another piece of paper and throwing into the wastebasket, which had begun to overflow. He had been trying all week to find a way to either smuggle Shirosakura out of the country or convince the Mizukage to let her go. So far, the only thing he had was sealing the Sanbi and exchanging it for Shirosakura, but that might not even work either.

"It's the only idea that has a chance. Bah, I'll do it, my luck's always been amazing." With that, Naruto gathered his sealing supplies and a large urn he procured to seal the Sanbi into. Back during the chunin exams, Gaara had mentioned the Shukaku was contained within a teapot before being sealed into him, so Naruto figured the urn should hold the Sanbi. After checking his sealing notes, the blonde drew up the seal he would use to contain the Sanbi. With that done Naruto sealed the urn in a storage scroll and headed out. It was fortunate Jiraiya was currently scouring the countryside for any sign of an Akatsuki base, or he would have stopped the blonde from doing this. Naruto was heading out of Mist, when Mugetsu suddenly started giving a distress call. Naruto responded and headed to the dragon's location, warping to save time. When he reached her location, Naruto immediately saw the problem, ten shinobi from sound had surrounded Shirosakura, and were in the process of binding her to be transported back to their base. Naruto immediately warped in and slashed one of the nins in half, causing the rest to jump back in defensive positons.

"The first one who lays another hand on the girl dies instantly." said Naruto, obsidian sword still dripping with blood as he pointed towards the sound nins. "The next one, I take my time with." One of the sound nins drew a katana, and rushed the blonde, who simply warped behind the man and slew him with a decapitation strike.

"Anyone else?" asked Naruto, and the other eight rushed him en masse. The fight was completely one sided when Naruto unleashed his dance of the new moon style, constantly warping and delivering deadly strikes in vulnerable areas. The fight was over in a minute with Naruto surrounded by dead bodies and blood. Counting the bodies, Naruto counted up seven, one of them was still alive. Suddenly, all instincts screamed at him to dodge, and the blonde dodged to the left, the swish of a sword reaching his ears.

"I'm surprised you managed to dodge my attack," said a disembodied male voice, "good instincts." Again Naruto felt the urge to dodge, and did so once more, once again hearing the swish of a sword through air.

"_So he's invisible, well that's annoying." _Naruto thought to himself, and used his mental probe to find the man. Immediately locating him, Naruto warped behind him and stabbed the man clean through the chest. With a gasp of pain, the man's invisibility dropped and he fell to the ground dead. Flicking his blade to remove the blood from it, and wiping what remained on the dead body, Naruto sheathed his blade and turned to his left.

"You can come out now, Sasuke." called the blonde, and Sasuke stepped out into the clearing. The Uchiha wore a pale grey kimono shirt, along with black shinobi pants held up by a rope belt like the one Orochimaru wore. He wore black shinobi sandals and no headband.

"Damn dobe, you've gotten stronger. Didn't take you for a sword user. Thanks for the sword by the way." casually said the Uchiha.

"What, you expected me to stay the idiotic loser? You're not the only one being trained by a sannin. How's that going by the way?" Said Naruto with a smirk.

"Well, I'm getting good training, but the snake's trying to cut corners by pumping me full of enhancement drugs, which are probably laced with some kind of mind control serum."

"Damn, not only is he a gay pedophile, but he's a druggie too? Seriously Sasuke you should go back to the leaf."

"I'm sorely tempted, but there are only three sannin, and I'm not cut out for the medic business. Right now Orochimaru's got what I need, and if I have to brave the snake's den, then so be it." Naruto nodded, seeing where Sasuke was coming from.

"I get ya, you bastard." he said.

"Sorry by the way, for punching a hole through you. I wasn't in control of myself." At this Naruto grew confused.

"How so?" he asked. Sasuke jabbed a thumb to his curse seal.

"This little hickey allows the snake to control me while I watch in third person. He wanted me to kill you so that I could gain Mangekyou, but I managed to stop him from doing so."

"I thought it was sealed." replied Naruto.

"Kakashi sensei treated it like Anko's, but this one's totally different." Sasuke then turned and started walking away. "Nice seeing ya dobe." he said, and started tree hopping back to sound. Once he had left, Mugetsu emerged from her hiding place.

"_So that was the Uchiha you told me about. He doesn't seem as broody as you make him out to be." _she said.

"Pfft, of course he doesn't seeing as he's getting what he wants." replied Naruto, then he thought of something.

"Though I have to admit I'm glad the bastard came by. His team provided just what I needed." he said, and grabbed a sound headband off one of the dead bodies. Untying Shirosakura, Naruto located and destroyed the tracking seal placed on her.,

"Okay, that should alert SHARK. Mugetsu, get Shirosakura out of here. When sensei and I leave later today, follow us a good ways behind. Once we're out of the country, catch up." Naruto placed a thick blanket on Mugetsu's neck, and hoisted Shirosakura onto her.

"Okay Shirosakura, make sure you hold on." Mugetsu then launched into the air and flew off. Twenty minutes later, a unit of SHARK leaped into the clearing.

"What happened here?" asked the leader, and Naruto gave the man a believable story and the sound headband. When he was done, the SHARK unit went back to report to the Mizukage. Naruto went back to his hotel, and upon entering found his sensei waiting.

"All right brat, time to leave. I found a place that Akatsuki could have used as a hideout, but it hasn't been used in years, so I believe they've abandoned it." Nodding, Naruto gathered his belongings and followed his sensei to the harbour to catch the ferry that went back to fire country.

…...

Rain poured from the sky as an orange haired man approached an old house. The man's long orange hair was done in a ponytail, and he had many metal piercings in his face, the most prominent one being a long askew one going through his nose. The most eye catching feature were the ripple patterned eyes the man had. Entering the house, the man walked around in it, reliving old memories. The man made his way into the living room and saw that it had been stripped of whatever valuables it had held in the past. Sighing, the man payed homage to his deceased parents, and turned to leave. As soon as he took a step, the rotting wood making up the floor gave way, and the man fell through the floor.

…...

**Okay, I am now free till the fifth of December, so expect more frequent updates. So, leave your thoughts in a review, and look out for my next Naruto/Inheritance cycle crossover I'll be publishing. I also accept request fics, and am working on my first one right now, though it will be tweaked a bit seeing as the idea's been used quite often. Til next time people.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Three months had passed since Naruto and Jiraiya left Mist. When Jiraiya had found out that Naruto had stolen the last Kaguya from under the village's nose he went ballistic, demanding that Naruto return her. Naruto adamantly refused, he would not subject anyone to the life of loneliness he had to endure. Eventually Jiraiya gave up, and prayed the blonde's actions would not start a war between Leaf and Mist. Jiraiya started training Shirosakura as well, and put her under a diet extremely high in calcium. Two weeks into the group's training, Shirosakura activated her bloodline, the dead bone pulse. Jiraiya started teaching her all he knew on the Kaguya dances, but his knowledge was very limited as the Kaguya bloodline rarely awakened in any of their members. All he really knew was the larch and camellia dances, having seen nothing else of the bone attacks of the Kaguya. Naruto had also started learning water style ninjutsu. Though he did not know the elemental manipulation exercises for water it didn't make him incapable of using the element, and had learned five water jutsu. Mugetsu had also stepped up her training. She started hefting larger loads and had Naruto place gravity and resistance seals on her. The dragon had also undergone a large growth spurt, she was now twice as tall as Naruto. Naruto and Jiraiya also gathered information and occasionally made raids on Orochimaru's bases. During the last raid, they had found a large treasure room full of interesting weapons and armours. Sasuke had also been at the base, and the two had clashed blades. The fight ended when Orochimaru and Jiraiya's fight had spilled into the base, causing massive integral damage. During the confusion, Sasuke struck Naruto in the back of the head, knocking the blonde out, and grabbed what he could, making a hurried exit. Naruto was conscious in a minute, but by then Sasuke had escaped. Naruto started sealing all the things in the treasure room despite the base collapsing. When he was done, the room was about to collapse on his head, but Naruto warped out of the base before it came down on him. He had received a punch to the head by Jiraiya for being an idiot, and had received a punch from Shirosakura to the stomach for worrying her. Mugetsu was also not pleased, and sat on the blonde the whole day. One month after the raid, Naruto finally caved to his sensei's demands, and learned the flying thunder god technique, vowing only to use it to cross the vast distances to his precious people should they be in danger. Currently Naruto had convinced the toad sage to stop in Sand, seeing as their Jinchuuriki was one of Naruto's best friends. After traveling across the desert for three days, the group reached the village hidden in the sand.

"So this is what Gaara's village looks like." said the blonde as the group walked into the village. All the buildings were circular in shape and were completely made of stone. Large tents filled the market squares, shielding the goods held within from the lashing wind and sand. Children ran through the streets, playing games with each other or with pets, as the men and women browsed the tents. All in all, it looked like the sand village had become quite prosperous.

"Okay brats," said Jiraiya, "I'm going to tell whoever's in charge about the Akatsuki threat. You two can wander the streets until I come get you." With that, Jiraiya disappeared with a body flicker technique. As Naruto and Shirosakura walked through the district, he saw a very familiar person browsing one of the tents.

"Kankuro!" Naruto shouted, "hey, Kankuro!"

"What?" came the annoyed response as the puppet user turned around, and then his jaw hit the floor.

"Naruto?" he asked in disbelief. Naruto grinned, grabbed hold of Shirosakura, and warped the rest of the way, scaring the crap out of the puppet user.

"Holy! How'd you do that?" he asked in shock when Naruto disappeared, then reappeared right behind him.

"Apparently it's a bloodline." said the blonde. "So how's everyone doing?"

"Pretty well actually. Sis and I are both chunin, and Gaara's jonin. Baki sensei is currently filling in the position of Kazekage until the council elects a new one. So what have you been up to?"

"Training mostly. Sensei's probably informing Baki about the Akatsuki threat, then will probably scour the desert looking for any bases belonging to the group, So I'll probably be here about a week." Kankuro nodded, then turned his gaze to Shirosakura.

"So who's this?" he asked.

This is Shirosakura. I found her while I was in the land of water." replied the blonde. Shirosakura gave a nervous wave and mumbled a hello, still not quite used to people other than Naruto and Jiraiya. Deciding to change the subject, Naruto asked a question that had been plaguing him for a while.

"So Kankuro, how's Gaara doing?"

"He's doing very well for himself. Ever since that failed invasion, he started doing all he could to gain the village's acceptance, and it's paid off. The people love him and support him, and I've never seen him more happy. It's all thanks to you for putting some sense and sanity back into him." Naruto smiled when he heard that, then an idea came to him.

"Say Kankuro, how's Gaara dealing with Shukaku?"

"He's been able to ignore the demons screams and ramblings for blood and destruction, but he's insanely jealous of me and sis being able to sleep." Naruto nodded, and decided to drop the bomb.

"What if I told you I had a way to fix that?" To this, the puppet user's eyes widened in shock.

"You can help Gaara sleep?" he asked, his voice tinged with hope.

"Better, I can silence the demon completely for him." All the sudden, he was grabbed from behind, and began to get dragged away. Naruto broke free, but the person who was dragging him made another grab. The blonde quickly warped back to Kankuro, and saw that the person who had dragged him was none other than Temari.

"Temari? When did you get here?" asked Naruto.

"That's not important. Can you really help my little brother like you said?" the girl asked, her voice dripping with hope.

"I'm confidant that I can." said the Uzumaki, and was promptly grabbed by Temari, who started dragging him away again.

"Whoa whoa, where are you dragging me off to?" asked Naruto as he tried getting out of the girl's grip.

"To our house so you can help Gaara." she said. Realizing nothing he could do would get the woman on a mission to let go, Naruto let the blonde girl cart him off to her family's home, Kankuro and Shirosakura following. Thirty minutes of getting his pants filled with sand later, the group reached their destination. It was a large mansion about three stories tall, made of red sandstone. Temari opened the door and proceeded to drag the blonde in.

"Um Temari, can you let me walk the rest of the way please?" Naruto asked the girl. Temari let go, allowing Naruto to stand back up and shake the sand out of his pants. Temari then led the group into the living room, and inside was Gaara, sitting on the couch reading from a scroll, his gourd of sand propped against the wall. Turning to see the mild commotion, Gaara's black ringed eyes widened, but immediately returned to their original look of indifference and boredom.

"Uzumaki, it's good to see you again." said the red head in his usual monotone.

"No time for chit chat Gaara," said Temari rushing to her brother, "Naruto says he can silence Shukaku and allow you to sleep without the demon taking control." Gaara remained stoic, but internally his jaw was hitting the floor.

"Is this true?" Gaara asked, and Naruto nodded.

"I'm pretty sure I can do it, I just need some information on Shukaku and a look at Gaara's current seal." the blonde boy replied.

"What do you wish to know?" asked Gaara.

"Well, I remember you saying Shukaku was the spirit of an insane monk, yet Shukaku's a Biju. How can a Biju be the spirit of a monk?"

"Oh that," said Kankuro, "that's due to a certain event pertaining to Shukaku. What happened was that the first Jinchuuriki of Shukaku had successfully conquered the tanuki, and had total control of the biju.

When he grew old, he had Shukaku extracted from him, and the biju was given to the desert monks to guard until a new host could be selected. Well, one of the monks, whose name no one can remember, was an insane, power hungry guy. He had seen the power of the Shukaku's first host, and decided to seal the demon into himself. When he attempted it however, he screwed up, and instead of Shukaku being sealed into him, he sealed his soul into the demon, causing it to go crazy." Naruto winced slightly, knowing the dangers of sealing gone wrong.

"All right then, now I just need to check your seal, Gaara." said the blonde boy. Nodding, Gaara lifted his shirt, and focused his chakra, allowing the seal to become visible. When he saw it, Naruto's eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"That's your seal!" the Uzumaki screamed. "Who the hell uses a three point lock seal, with a berserker seal as a buffer? Seriously, nothing lower than a six point seal should be used when it comes to the biju. It's a miracle Shukaku hasn't busted out on his own yet. I mean seriously, whoever made this seal either knows next to nothing on sealing, or intentionally made the seal this weak, probably the latter."

"Can you fix it?" asked Temari, interrupting Naruto's rant.

"I'm no longer sure. Gaara needs an entirely new seal, and I don't know if I'm good enough to start sealing biju, but I'll try. I already have a seal formula planned, all I need to do is make some changes, add a buffer, and set up the array, and I might be able to do it. Give me til tomorrow morning to make the changes to my formula, and we should be ready to do this." the blonde replied with determination. Naruto started heading out, Shirosakura following, when Temari grabbed the blonde, and gave him a fierce hug.

"Thank you so much Naruto, you have no idea how much this means to us." she said, and released Naruto. The boy just gave his trademark foxy grin.

"No problem Temari. Gaara's my best friend, and I always help my friends, believe it!" Temari giggled and let Naruto and Shirosakura head off to wherever they needed to go. Once the two left the house, Jiraiya jumped down from a rooftop in front of them.

"There you two are, I was wondering where you went. Now then, now that our allies have been informed of Akatsuki we can head off." said the toad sage.

"No." was Naruto's answer.

"What, why not? We need to keep moving otherwise Akatsuki will get a lock on us." said Jiraiya.

"I can't leave yet sensei, I can't leave Gaara in the state he's in."

"The Ichibi Jinchuuriki? What's wrong with him?"

"What's wrong? Whatever idiot performed the sealing on him used way too weak a seal. A three point tri lock seal with a berserker seal as the buffer, can you believe that?"

"But what's that got to do with... Oh no. You are not going to do what I think you're going to do." Jiraiya hoped his student was not going to tamper with the Shukaku's seal, but his stomach hit the floor when Naruto only stared back at him, his deep blue eyes telling all.

"No. No no, no. You will _not _touch that seal Naruto. You're doing amazing in your sealing studies, but you are nowhere near the level needed to start messing with the Biju. I will not, hey... Naruto, get back here, you hear me?" Naruto was walking away, completely ignoring his sensei. "Naruto, as your master I forbid you from going anywhere near the Ichibi host... Hey, do not ignore me." Naruto responded by flipping the bird at his sensei as he continued to walk away. Jiraiya tried grabbing the blonde, but Naruto warped out of sight before Jiraiya could grab him.

"Dammit, I have to stop him. If he makes even one mistake, it could spell disaster. Come on Shirosakura, we gotta stop him." Grabbing the Kaguya, Jiraiya performed a body flicker and started searching for his blonde student. Said student however, had camouflaged himself in an invisibility genjutsu, releasing it when Jiraiya left. Hoisting his bag onto his shoulder, Naruto exited the village and ran to Mugetsu's location. Once he reached his obsidian dragon, Naruto brought out the sealing formula he had made to capture the Sanbi. Time seemed to blur as Naruto worked on the formula, making the necessary adjustments to keep the Ichibi within a living prison instead of an inanimate one. Minutes turned to hours, and soon the sun had started to set.

"_Naruto, you need to go back. The desert nights are freezing and you are not prepared for them." _said the dragon, but Naruto shook his head.

"I can't, sensei will find me and drag me away." he replied.

"And who says I haven't found you already." said a familiar voice. Naruto whipped his head back and saw Jiraiya and Shirosakura. Jiraiya had his arms folded across his chest, and was giving Naruto a piercing glare.

"Naruto, enough. I know you want to help your friend, but you aren't ready to seal a Biju."

"Then why don't you help huh? If you help me, then we can easily make a seal good enough." said Naruto.

"It's not the seal, it's releasing the old seal and holding Shukaku in that you're not ready for. If you release the seal, then there's nothing holding Shukaku back except for Gaara's chakra, and that won't be enough. Listen, I know you want to help your friend, but this is something you can't yet do." Jiraiya saw that Naruto was once again ignoring him.

"Naruto, why is this so important to you. Yes Gaara has a weak seal, but it will still hold Shukaku back. Why are you so desperate?" Naruto was silent, then he spoke.

"Because sensei, Gaara's suffering. I don't think anyone else could see it, but Gaara is still suffering. I could see it in his eyes, he's scared. The demon's constantly tormenting him. He's afraid of losing control and killing his family, his precious people. I don't want to see him like that. I could see how bad his sister wants to hug him, but she's scared to because of his sand defense. I want to make sure that demon has no chance of hurting anybody. Originally I just thought I would need to overlay a simple suppression seal over his existing one, but now I realize it's going to take much more than that. Gaara's already practically holding Shukaku down with his will alone. If I can make him a better seal, it would do so much for him." Jiraiya sighed, it was just like his student to put his friends before anything.

"All right brat, you win." said Jiraiya, shocking the blonde. "If you're so adamant about this, I guess I'll help, now show me your formula." Naruto did as he was asked, and showed his sensei his seal formula and array.

"Hmm, a six point earth element lock seal, overlayed with a four point diamond seal as a buffer, this could work. Still though, it could do with some adjustments, as could the array, and... what the? A soul extraction seal? What's that for.?"

"To get rid of that crazy monk in Shukaku." said Naruto.

"Naruto, don't you think it's been tried before? Ever since he was first sealed within Shukaku, they've been trying to get him out, but they haven't succeeded. No matter what is done, no one has gotten that psycho out of the Ichibi."

At least let me try sensei. If I can get the bastard out of Shukaku, it might make the Biju more docile, or at least more agreeable." pleaded Naruto. Jiraiya sighed, but agreed. After making his own tweaks and adjustments, Jiraiya deemed the seal fit to hold Shukaku and they would do it tomorrow. Naruto called the seal the stone dungeon seal, and the three headed back to the sand village, Mugetsu assuring Naruto she would be alright.

…...

"Are you sure she's safe, Uzumaki?" Gaara asked nervously. Naruto and Jiraiya had taken Gaara out of the village so that if the the sealing went wrong, Shukaku wouldn't be released in the sand village's walls. Currently they were inside a large cave, the sealing array inked out onto the floor. Naruto had brought Mugetsu since the dragon could help if Shukaku potentially got loose. Of course, Gaara was a bit scared of her.

"I'm positive Gaara. She won't hurt you. Now stop squirming, this is hard enough as it is without you moving around." said Naruto as he inked the necessary designs and kanji onto Gaara's skin around his current seal. The seal he was currently drawing was necessary in the removal of Gaara's current seal.

"Another thing. Can't you just draw the new seal over the existing one, then release the existing seal?" the red head asked.

"Sorry Gaara, no can do. If I did that, there's a good chance the two seals could react to each other, and end up doing a variety of very unpleasant things. Now hold still dammit, one screw up and I could turn you into an explosive note capable of turning the entire desert into a crater!"

…...

Far off in tea country, a blonde haired man in a black cloak with red clouds felt a shudder go up his spine.

"Wierd, why do I get the feeling someone's doing something that has the potential to become the greatest representation of art in the history of the world?" he asked himself.

…...

Once the last bit of kanji was finished, Naruto brought out a demon suppression seal tag, and slapped it on Gaara's head.

"Okay sensei, he's all inked up and ready to go. How's your end looking?"

"Done." said the toad sage as he activated the barrier. "Now let's get this done good and proper."

"Sensei, how long will that demon suppression seal last?" asked the blonde as he started prepping for the seal removal.

"Honestly brat, I have no idea. I made that seal to suppress Kyuubi if you ever lost control. It wasn't designed to hold down the full might of a Biju.."

"Alright then, that just means we got to hurry." said Naruto as his hands became a blur, whipping through a long handsign chain in seconds. "Seal Release Method: Seal Destruction!" Naruto called out, and the index and middle finger on his left hand blazed with blue fire. Ramming the two fingers down on Gaara's current seal, Naruto twisted his fingers like he was turning a key. The fire spread across the three point seal and the removal seal swirled and mixed into the blazing seal,completely removing it.

"Here we go." Said Naruto as the last of the seal faded, and the full might of Shukaku erupted. Fortunately the suppression seal on Gaara's forehead was holding the demon at bay, but it wouldn't for long. Gaara started screaming in agony as Shukaku's wild chakra ripped through him, desperately trying to free itself. Now came the hard part, drawing up the new seal. Swiftly as he could, Naruto started drawing out the seal on Gaara's stomach, drawing out the design and writing out the necessary kanji. Sweat started dripping from his brow as he worked, and the suppression seal on the screaming and thrashing Gaara started to burn away. Soon the seal was finished, and Naruto needed to activate it. The Uzumaki started whipping through the two hundred fifty handsigns required for the seal to take effect, praying he would finish before the suppressor gave out. Speeding through the last of the handsigns, Naruto slammed his hand down on Gaara's navel, just as the suppresion seal gave out.

"Sealing jutsu: Stone Dungeon Seal!" Naruto screamed out, and the seal he had inked out flared to life. Soon Shukaku's presence faded, but Naruto wasn't done yet. Whipping out a scroll, Naruto unraveled it, revealing another seal with the kanji for insanity on it.

"Seal Extraction Method: Spirit Siphon Seal!" He shouted out, activating the seal. Naruto pressed his hand to the back of the scroll, and the appendage seemed to sink into the paper. On the side showing the seal, a spectral hand made of chakra emerged from the scroll, and Naruto sent it into Gaara's seal. Naruto felt Shukaku's consciousness, and moved around it, trying to find the soul of the monk. Nothing could be felt except Shukaku however, then Naruto got an idea. Instead of feeling around for Shukaku's spirit for a second spirit leeching off it, Naruto drove his hand into the spirit of Shukaku itself. Gaara let loose an agonizing scream and clutched his head, making Naruto quicken his efforts. After a bit of searching, he found a second presence, and grabbed hold of it. Now came the hard part, pulling it out. Naruto started pulling his arm out of the seal, and the spectral arm started pulling the soul out. Naruto felt like he was trying to pull something out of deep thick mud, and pulled harder. Inch by precious inch, Naruto started pulling the mad monk out of Shukaku. Soon the spectral hand left the seal, clutching something that looked like black tar. The black soul seemed to stretch, as if trying to pull itself back into the seal. Naruto's brow was sweating even harder now, and soon his hand started getting pulled back down.

"I don't think so you bastard, I'm getting you out of there if it's the last thing I do." said Naruto, and started yanking as hard as he could, eliciting more screams of pain from Gaara due to Shukaku's discomfort. The black soul however, was fighting back, and eventually Naruto started losing ground. Then a spectral claw joined Naruto's hand in grabbing the monk, and Naruto turned to see Mugetsu helping him. With the dragon's help, the two regained their lost ground and with one final yank, the two tore the soul free from Shukaku, and pulled it into the seal. Rolling the scroll back up, Naruto tossed it into the air, Mugetsu unleashing a stream of fire which incinerated the scroll. Panting from exhaustion, Naruto looked at Gaara, who had finally ceased screaming.

"So how are you feeling?" he asked the red head, who glared at him.

"My head feels like someone's smashing it with a hammer, my stomach feels like someone poured molten lead down my throat, and I can barely move without being in agony. On the plus side, I can't hear Shukaku, so I think it worked." Naruto chuckled a bit, and managed to recover somewhat. Then he heard clapping, and looked to the source of the sound to see Jiraiya.

"I admit it kid, I'm impressed. You actually managed to not only seal a Biju, but you also managed to remove that insane spirit from Shukaku's soul. I'm proud of you brat." Naruto grinned, and the two brought Gaara back into the village.

"Naruto," said Gaara as they were trekking across the desert, "I'm feeling very strange."

"How so Gaara?" asked the blonde in slight worry, wondering if he somehow screwed something up.

"I feel completely drained of any and all energy, and my eyes are trying to close themselves of their own volition." replied Gaara, and Naruto blinked.

"Oh, that's fine Gaara, you're just falling asleep."

"What? If I fall asleep, then Shukaku will..."

"Don't worry about a thing Gaara, that new seal will allow you to sleep and not worry about releasing Shukaku." Gaara's eyes widened.

"Are you sure Naruto?" he asked, his voice tinged with hope. Naruto smiled to his friend.

"I promise Gaara, and I never break those, 'cause that's my nindo, my ninja way."

"Thank you, Naruto...Uzumaki." said Gaara, and at last his eyes closed, and sleep overcame him.

…...

Gaara opened his eyes to see himself in a desert. While normally this wouldn't be a strange thing at all, this was not the desert that held his home and village. The sand was too golden in color, and not the pale straw of the desert he had grown up in. That left one question, where was he? Looking around, the red head saw some ruins out in the distance to his right, the rest of the desert was completely empty. Deciding to head to the ruins, Gaara traversed across the desert, using his sand manipulation to speed himself along. Upon reaching the ruins, Gaara found his path blocked by a huge stone wall. Willing the sand to his feet, Gaara used his power over the sand to raise himself over the wall. After an hour of raising himself, the Jinchuuriki managed to clear the wall, and what he saw below him made his jaw drop. The wall was hexagonal, with a massively tall, narrow spire on each corner that seemed to touch the sky itself. Gaara knew that he would never be able to raise himself high enough to reach the top of those spires. Beyond the walls, was some kind of citadel. It was like someone made an entire hidden village a single castle. It was pyramidal in shape, and was divided into levels, with massive walls defending each level. The bottom level seemed to be the civilian and market area, and the medium level seemed to belong to nobles and clans. At the top level was what looked to be a stone fortress, and the crown of the pyramid was made of pure gold studded with huge diamonds. All in all, it was the most amazing thing the red head had ever seen. Flying to the top level of the citadel, Gaara cautiously entered the fortress. As soon as he crossed the doorway, two braziers of oil sprung ablaze, and the flames followed a small aqueduct of fuel built into the two walls down the dark hall, lighting the corridor. The suddenness of it all startled Gaara, but the red head soon composed himself. Walking down the hall, Gaara was surprised to see the walls adorned with murals and tapestries, each showing a piece of the citadel's history. Many of the pieces interested Gaara greatly, and he stopped stop to ponder them for a bit, then moved along. Finally, the red head reached the end of the hall, and a set of massive violet double doors greeted him. Upon closer inspection, Gaara discovered that the doors were made of pure amethyst. Gaara pushed against the cold crystal, and the two doors swiftly swung inward without a sound, like they weighed less than feathers.

Walking through the doors, Gaara couldn't help but gasp, for he had stepped into the biggest library he had ever seen in his life. Books and scrolls lined the walls and columns from the floor to the ceiling, their forms all organized and neatly stacked on shelves of crystal. The whole room was illuminated by veins of brightly glowing blue crystal in the ceiling, spider-webbing across its surface. Then Gaara saw something that made his blood run cold. Standing in the middle of the room was the Shukaku. The biju had his back to Gaara, but the red head was sure the demon knew he was there. Then Shukaku turned around, and Gaara's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. The demon was... reading. Shukaku currently had his face buried in a book, and if he noticed the presence of his container, he made no sign of it. Instinct told Gaara to run, but curiosity told him to stay. Before he could finish his internal war, Shukaku shut the book with a snap, and set his gaze on Gaara.

"**Hello young pup."** The Shukaku said, but not in the voice of bloodlust and insanity that Gaara was so used to hearing. Instead, the voice carried elderly wisdom and intelligence.

"Shukaku? But, you're sealed within me, how can you be here?" Shukaku just grinned.

"**Ah, but that's the thing young pup, we're currently within your mind, more specifically, the new seal your blonde friend made. Haven't had one this good since my first container."** Gaara's eyes widened and he looked around in astonishment. This was his mind?

"If this is my mind, then what does this room signify?" asked the red head.

"**A very good question pup. This library represents the entirety of your genetic code. Everything from your anatomy, to your genetic instincts and memories, is recorded in this entire library. Quite amazing isn't it?"**

"Quite." Gaara agreed, still fascinated by the information given to him. Shukaku chuckled and placed the book he had been reading back into its proper spot.

"**Come, young pup. I wish to show you something."** said the tanuki, and he started heading to the far end of the room. Gaara was curious as to what the demon wanted to show him, and he followed the biju. They soon stopped at a bookshelf.

"**All right pup, I think it's high time you unlocked your bloodline limit, wouldn't you say so?"** At this, Gaara grew confused.

"But I was tested for my father's bloodline, and I do not carry it, so how could I possibly unlock it?"

"**You don't have your father's bloodline yes, but your mother's is a different story."** replied Shukaku, causing Gaara's eyes to widen.

"**Now then,"** continued the tanuki, **"unlocking it is quite simple, all you have to do is take that book, and place it on that pedestal."** and the Shukaku pointed to both the book and the pedestal. Nodding, Gaara did as told, and a burst of power erupted from the pedestal as soon as the book was placed on it.

"**It's done. Congratulations Gaara, you've unlocked an extremely rare bloodline limit."** Gaara nodded, then suddenly he started vanishing.

"**Ah, it looks like you're waking up, come back anytime pup, it'll be nice to have someone to talk to."**

…...

Naruto was getting worried. Sure he had encouraged Gaara to sleep, but not for five whole days. After he and Jiraiya brought Gaara back home, they had set him on the couch so he could sleep comfortably. When Kankuro and Temari came home and saw Gaara asleep, they had panicked at first, but calmed down when the blonde explained the situation. Naruto had then received a bone crushing hug from Temari, the sand kunoichi repeatedly thanking him as she squeezed the poor blonde tighter. Now the group was worried due to the fact that Gaara hadn't moved much less woken up in five days. Then, in the middle of the afternoon, Gaara finally stirred, and opened his eyes.

"Where am I?" the red head asked, garnering the attention of the small group in the kitchen.

"Gaara!" exclaimed Temari as she rushed over to her brother, Kankuro, Naruto, and Shirosakura right behind her. Temari leaped at her brother and enveloped him in a hug.

"Gaara, thank goodness your all right. We thought something had gone wrong and you had gone comatose." she said in worry.

"It's alright Temari, I was just sleeping. However, I entered my mindscape, and spoke with Shukaku." At this, Temari's and Kankuro's eyes widened in fear, but Naruto remained calm.

"Can you tell us what transpired between you and Shukaku." the blonde asked. Gaara nodded, and recounted all what had happened during his time in his mind. Temari and Kankuro were awed by the description of Gaara's mindscape, and were shocked by the new personality of Shukaku. Naruto however, was ranting and raving about the unfairness of it all and how the damn red head gets all the luck. After everyone managed to calm down, Gaara's and Naruto's stomachs let off a loud rumble.

"Heh heh, well Gaara hasn't eaten in five days, and we never had lunch, so who's up for ramen?" asked Naruto. After the group ate their fill of Naruto's self proclaimed food of the gods, they headed back to the Kazekage mansion.

"Hey Gaara," said Naruto, gaining the red head's attention, "I was wondering if I could spar with you, so we could see how much stronger since the last time we met up." Gaara thought it over. He did need to see what his newly activated bloodline limit was and how it worked, and he too was curious as to how much stronger he and Naruto had become.

"Very well Naruto, we'll use the Kazekage training grounds. Follow me." Gaara replied, and led Naruto out of the village and into a large training ground, Temari, Shirosakura, and Kankuro following. Jiraiya, who had left earlier that day searching for any akatsuki bases hidden in the desert, saw them going in and entered as well. Gaara took one end of the training ground and Naruto took the other, both staring at the other, sizing each other up. After getting the details from Temari, Jiraiya went into the training ground to referee.

"Okay boys, this is a sanctioned spar. I want no killing or mortal blows, and Naruto, no dance of the new moon, give Gaara a chance will you. Do you both understand?" The two boys nodded, and Jiraiya chopped his hand down, signaling the beginning of the fight. Naruto wasted no time, dashing across the field and delivering a swift right hook. Gaara knew the punch would be blocked by his sand shield, but was shocked beyond belief when Naruto scored a direct hit to his face unimpeded. Naruto immediately seized the opening Gaara's shock gave him, and landed four more blows before the red head could reacting, sending him flying. Gaara hit the ground with a thud, shocked that his protective sand didn't respond and cushion his fall.

_'W-what's happened? Why won't the sand defend me?' _Thought Gaara in panic. The sand had always protected him, and it terrified him that it was no longer working. Gaara saw Naruto coming at him again, and willed the sand to intercept the blonde. Much to Gaara's relief the sand obeyed, but it did so much more sluggishly than usual. Unfortunately, the sand was too slow, and Naruto easily avoided it, unleashing another taijutsu combo on Gaara. Gaara tried bringing up his sand shield consciously, but it rose too slow to stop Naruto's barrage of punches and kicks. Gaara was thankful that his sand armour was still functional, as it lessened the impact of Naruto's blows considerably. Once again Gaara was thrown back by a vicious snap kick to his chest, sending him sprawling across the ground.

_'Why? Why have I become so weak all of the sudden? Why is my sand so slow?'_

"**Oh dear, I was afraid of this, pup." **Responded Shukaku, surprising Gaara.

_'You know what's happening?' _he asked the bijuu.

"**Yes. It appears our old seal was what made my powers so easy to control, seeing as I was able to run chakra through the sand, and I was able to work your sand shield automatically.**

_'How do I fix this then?'_

"**If you use some of my chakra, you'll be able to use the sand as efficiently as you could before the new seal was placed."**

_'May I have some then?' _asked Gaara.

"**Well, since you asked nicely." **Shukaku replied humourously, and sent a small amount of his chakra into Gaara's coils. The effect was immediate. Naruto went in for another punch at Gaara, only for his fist to smash into Gaara's sand shield. Naruto was immediately put on the defensive as Gaara's sand was back to full speed. The blonde was now dodging like his life depended on it. Claws of sand would try to rake at him, while sharp spires of sand would try to attack him from below. Pillars of sand would crash to the ground from above, while the sand from all around the area tried to bog him down.

"All right brat. Seeing as Gaara's not pulling his punches any, dance of the new moon is authorized, just nothing fatal." said Jiraiya, making Naruto smirk. Gaara didn't know what hit him. One second, he had caught Naruto in a sand prison. The next, he was flying back again from a fierce punch. Before the red head could even hit the ground, he was kicked away again, then again. After five strikes, Gaara was allowed to touch the ground, and Naruto suddenly appeared right above him, Rasengan in hand. Sand leaped in front of Gaara, shielding him from the spinning ball of chakra, but the jutsu was relentlessly drilling through the shield. Gaara was panicking, he did not, under any circumstances, want to get hit by that jutsu. All the sudden, Gaara felt a pulse in his chakra, just as the Rasengan broke through the shield. The ball stopped just before it struck his chest and disappeared, the hand holding it vanishing, but not by speed. If it was speed, it would have parted the sand, but the shield remained undisturbed save the rapidly closing hole the Rasengan had created. Getting up, Gaara heard something hit the ground, and turned to look at it. What he saw was a large, jagged piece of crystal he recognized as quartz.

"**Well well pup, you finally used your bloodline." **said Shukaku.

_'This is my bloodline?' _Gaara thought in wonder.

"**That's right pup, the crystal style, though a little different from what I've seen before. Right now you can only create crystals from the minerals from your surroundings, but with enough training, you could create any crystal from your chakra alone." **The one tail replied.

"What was that, Gaara?" Naruto asked in surprise, snapping Gaara out of his thoughts. Looking at Naruto, Gaara saw the blonde had a hand pressed to his side, no doubt where the quartz spike from earlier had hit him.

"Apparently it's a bloodline, on my mother's side." answered the red head. Naruto's eyes widened, then the blonde grinned.

"Damn, now this just gets better and better." said Naruto. The blonde then drew Getsuga, and vanished once more. Gaara noticed again it was not speed, as the ground and air had not been disturbed. Naruto then reappeared behind Gaara a split second later, and swung at Gaara's shoulder. Gaara tried leaping back, but still received a cut to his shoulder. The Jinchuriki then had Shukaku put more of his chakra into the sand, and the next time Naruto appeared for an attack, the sand shield was able to keep up. Gaara then went on the offensive, and poured his chakra into the sand all around him, creating a bracken field of spiky jagged quartz spires, drastically inhibiting Naruto's movement, lest he get ripped up by the spires. Gaara then sent his sand after Naruto, hoping to catch him this time. Naruto however, warped straight up, then straight forward so he was right above Gaara, and a Rasengan whirled to life in his palm. Gaara was surprised at this, and had no way of stopping Naruto.

"**Pup, do exactly as I instruct." **said Shukaku, and Gaara complied. Gaara outstretched his hand, and felt a weird prickling sensation as small globes of gold and blue chakra erupted out of his arm. The globes merged together, and the ball compressed itself to the size of his thumb. The ball finished solidifying just in time to slam against Naruto's Rasengan. The two chakra balls fought for dominance, and the Rasengan slowly pushed forward.

"**Now!" **roared Shukaku.

"Imari!" Gaara shouted, and the black ball of chakra in his hand hyper expanded and detonated, firing Naruto right back into the air, only to fall into the quartz field Gaara had tried trapping him in. The result was the same as falling into a cactus patch. Gaara had also suffered some chakra burns along his arm, causing it to fall limp to his side. The burns also completely covered the left side of his chest. Naruto warped himself out of the crystal field, covered in small spikes of quartz.

"Was that really necessary Gaara?" Naruto whined as he started pulling the needles out, wincing every time.

"Considering you were about to hit me with a jutsu that condenses chakra to the point it becomes visible, I'd say yes." the red head replied.

"All right boys that's enough banter," said Jiraiya as he walked up to the two boys, "I call the spar a draw, now let's get you guys treated." With that, the group headed back to the mansion.

…...

After Naruto rid himself of all the needles piercing him, and Gaara had bandaged himself up, the two were confronted by Jiraiya.

"Now then Gaara, about that bloodline. I want to do some testing." said the toad sage, and handed Gaara a slip of chakra paper.  
"Take this paper and send some chakra into it. It'll tell us what your chakra affinity is. Due to you having crystal release, you should have three elements; fire, water, and earth. This kind of bloodline is known as a bloodline expansion."

Why those particular elements, sensei?" asked Naruto.

"Well Naruto, it's due to the way crystals are grown. Earth represents the pressure of being deep underground. Water is what brings dissolved minerals down to those depths, and fire represents the intense heat that forms the crystals. Now Gaara, if you would."

"If you already know the elements, then why do I need to perform this test?" asked Gaara in his usual monotone.

"Just in case I'm wrong." Jiraiya replied. Shrugging, Gaara channeled some of his chakra into the paper, which crumbled into powdery dirt.

"Only earth? That's odd, to use a bloodline expansion all three elements must be of equal strength, and thus, all three should have appeared on the test." Jiraiya said, and started to ponder. By the time evening rolled around, Jiraiya still had no idea how Gaara could be using crystal style ninjutsu. Stepping out onto the roof, Jiraiya noticed Gaara was there, and was currently practicing his bloodline. Gaara had his eyes closed in concentration, and soon a piece of quartz was starting to form. That's when Jiraiya noticed it. Gaara was using actual minerals instead of having his chakra imitate them.

So that's how it works." said the toad sage, causing Gaara's eyes to snap open and look at him.

"What do you mean?" the jinchuriki asked.

"What I mean is, I think I found out how your bloodline works. You see, crystal style doesn't create actual crystals, it just creates a chakra construct with near identical properties to crystal. You on the other hand, are creating crystals using actual minerals, and your chakra is forming the structure and binding the minerals together." Gaara nodded at this, and returned to forming the quartz crystal. Jiraiya watched as Gaara formed the crystal, noticing the jaggedness of it.

"Hmm, it seems you have a problem with your manipulation." said Jiraiya.

"How so?" Gaara asked.

"Well, normally a crystal would never be so jagged and distorted. I think your problem is that you have to actively know how each crystal you try to make is supposed to be structured." Gaara frowned at this.

"Do you know how to structure it then?" Jiraiya just shook his head.

"Sorry kiddo, I'm no mineralogist, so I'm not the person to ask." With that, Jiraiya left the roof top, leaving Gaara alone with his thoughts.

…...

Five days since Gaara unleashed his bloodline passed, and Naruto, Shirosakura, and Jiraiya were packing up to leave. Gaara had been summoned to a meeting, and was shocked when the sand council informed him of a very important decision they had made.

"You want me to become Kazekage?" Asked Gaara. Sure, he had worked and succeeded to gain acknowledgment through love and not slaughter, but to become the fifth Kazekage was not something he had been going for.

"Yes Gaara. We believe you are strong enough to have earned the title. The people love you, and the shinobi of this village respect you greatly. Your father was also the Kazekage, so it's in your blood." said a councilman by the name of Yuura.

"I personally recommended you for the position Gaara. I believe you will be the most powerful Kazekage in the history of the sand." said Baki. Gaara was stunned. His own sensei thought that highly of him? He was tempted to accept the offer right there, but then he remembered his spar with Naruto five days ago.

"Forgive me council and elders, but I cannot in good conscience take the position of kazekage as of yet." This got startled reactions from the council members. They began to ask why he would refuse, until Baki managed to quiet everyone down.

"Gaara, why would you refuse?" asked Baki.

"It's not that I wish to flat out refuse the offer. I would love to become Kazekage. It's just that I'm not as strong as you all think I am. You all know what's sealed within me, and this offer has made me realize I depend too much on the demon within me. A jinchuriki must be able to use his biju, but if the biju is all I have, then when an opponent removes that source of power, I would be at their mercy." The council nodded at this, understanding where Gaara was coming from. The council members started talking amongst themselves, until Baki quietened them down once more.

"Well Gaara, what would you have us do? We can train you to become stronger in other aspects than your biju, but we can do so while you are Kazekage, so why refuse?"

"Because, Baki sensei, I have a completely different plan in mind. I intend to undergo a single year of training underneath Jiraiya of the Sannin." Many eyes widened at this.

"Why? Do you feel that your own village's ninja cannot help you get stronger?" asked Yuura.

"Not at all. I have full confidence that my village could make me strong, but I have a friend from the leaf village, Naruto, who's currently in the sand village and is being trained directly by Jiraiya. He and I had a spar, and although it was a draw, I could tell he was holding back a great deal. I feel that if I train with Naruto, that if I take this opportunity, I could become the strongest Kazekage in history. Jiraiya trained the fourth Hokage, correct? How strong do you think I could become in a year under his tutelage?" The council had to admit, Gaara had a good point. It took an hour and a lot of wordplay, but Gaara finally managed to get approval for his descision. When the meeting was adjourned, Gaara returned to his home. He saw that Naruto, Shirosakura, and Jiraiya were almost ready to leave. Approaching them, Gaara told them about his decision and managed, with a lot of help from Naruto, to convince Jiraiya to train him for a year, though he could learn nothing specific to the hidden leaf village. Gaara immediately gathered what he would need and packed quickly. Then he remembered something. Quickly making his way through the mansion, the red head came to a large double door locked by a blood and chakra seal. Unlocking the seal keeping the doors closed with some of his blood and a small burst of chakra, Gaara made his way into the room. There was only one thing in that room, a large scroll. Gaara knew what that scroll was, and thought it best if he took it. Sealing it into a storage scroll for later, Gaara hurried back to the two he was leaving with. After saying his goodbyes to his family, Gaara left with the group, fully determined to become powerful enough to protect his village when he became Kazekage.

…...

**A/N:**

**Finally got this chapter finished. Now before anybody goes and harps on me for Gaara using the menacing ball, it was extremely low powered because he was only getting the barest help with it from Shukaku, not to mention it lost power and impetus when it struck against Naruto's Rasengan. I also know I haven't really given Shiro any lines. The reason is she's not really a people person, so being in a large village scares her a bit. Therefore she keeps quiet and only speaks when spoken to. Don't worry though, she'll get more vocal in future chapters. One last thing, yes, that was a summon contract Gaara took, but which summon creature is for you to guess. So, hope you enjoyed this chapter , and please favorite and review. See you next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Two years. Two years since Naruto met Mugetsu. Two years since Naruto took his training seriously, and he had gone from a loudmouth attention seeking brat, to a shinobi so skilled it scared even Jiraiya. A week after leaving the sand village, Gaara had shown Naruto the exercises for wind manipulation, and using his shadow clones, perfected it within the span of two months. Naruto's kenjutsu also got much better, as he made specific katas to his dance of the new moon style. Finally, Naruto discovered he could create chakra chains like his mother. Six months after leaving sand, Naruto trained under the toads and sea serpents to learn their respective sage modes, which took him three months each. Naruto also learned the exercises for water manipulation during his time with the sea serpents. Gaara had also improved greatly. The in training Kazekage had learned a solid taijutsu style, and had also created a kenjutsu style he called dance of the desert wind. Gaara also became extremely proficient in the art of strategy and tactics,easily beating Naruto and Mugetsu in shogi. Jiraiya even claimed that Gaara could crush the brightest Nara in a shogi match. The biggest improvement however, was his bloodline. Gaara could create any crystal or gemstone with his chakra alone, and could even stimulate the surrounding underground to naturally grow such crystals and gems. Jiraiya had even checked a gem Gaara created with his chakra alone with a jeweler, and was told that it was a hundred percent genuine gemstone. Gaara however, could no longer control sand as he could before his seal change, unless he was channeling Shukaku's chakra. Shirozakura had also improved. With Gaara's help, she was able to perform both stages of the clematis dance, and the bracken dance. Shirozakura had also come into possession of a summoning contract of her own, the panther clan. She also had her chakra affinity tested, revealing it to be the lightning element. Again Gaara came to her rescue, teaching her and Naruto how to manipulate lightning, seeing as he knew a jonin who had the element. Naruto was at the second stage, levitating a kunai using electromagnetism, while Shirosakura was still at the first stage, creating an electrical current between two kunai. Mugetsu had improved her abilities as well. The dragon had hit a growth spurt and was now twice Naruto's height, about twelve feet, and was about twenty feet long. However, it wasn't her size, nor her fangs and claws that scared Jiraiya, nor was it her strength. It was the fact that she could use genjutsu that made the Sharingan's illusory abilities look mediocre in comparison. Her most powerful genjutsu was called realm of the moonless sky, and Jiraiya had dubbed it superior to the infinite darkness genutsu of the second Hokage, which was the only S ranked genjutsu that didn't require a bloodline to use. Jiraiya had heard of the Sharingan genjutsu Tsukuyomi, and he would rather be captured in that than the realm of the moonless sky.

Finally, the time had come, the final test between master and apprentice. Jiraiya stared off against Naruto and Mugetsu, a large field in between the fighters. Barrier and restoration seals had been placed on the battlefield, keeping the fight contained and ensuring no scar would be left upon the earth.

"All right brat, are you and your dragon ready?" Jiraiya asked his student, and received a nod in response. With that, both shinobi settled into their stances, Jiraiya into the frog fu opening stance, and Naruto into the dance of the new moon.

"Remember Naruto, hold nothing back. You are to use anything and everything you know in this fight. I want to see your sub element ninjutsu, I want to see your summons, I want to see sage mode. Do not worry about killing me, I am an S ranked shinobi and I'll be able to handle what you throw at me. The fight will end when one of us is either knocked out, or placed in a situation that would lead to death and escape is impossible. Are we clear?" Again Naruto replied with a slow deliberate nod.

"I'm ready sensei, try to at least keep up."

"Don't underestimate me Naruto. Just because you have a lot of strengths does not mean you are without weakness. Now then, Begin!" As soon as the word left Jiraiya's mouth, Naruto vanished, reappearing a split second later behind Jiraiya, Getsuga slicing through the air towards the toad sage's neck. Just before the obsidian blade struck flesh, Naruto's sword arm was caught by the jaws of Jiraiya's hair.

"Not bad Naruto, but not good enough, Ninja art: Needle Jizo!" Naruto's captured limb was ripped asunder by spikes of diamond hard hair, but Naruto's face showed no pain. Then Naruto started glowing, and detonated in a mighty blast. When the smoke cleared only a charred log remained. Mugetsu leaped into the air, the real Naruto riding atop her, just as thick coils of Jiraiya's hair burst from the ground underneath the dragon, intent on binding her. Naruto warped below Mugetsu, slashing the hair apart before it could ensnare the dragon, and warped back onto Mugetsu's back. The remaining hair retracted back into the ground, and Jiraiya leaped back onto the surface.

**(Insert Naruto ost Anger)**

"All right brat, now the real fight begins, Fire style: Dragon flame bombs!" Flying through the handsigns, Jiraiya let loose a huge torrent of flames that rushed up to the airborne dragon.

"Water style: Water wall jutsu!" Immediately, Mugetsu was surrounded in a sphere of rushing water. The fire jutsu collided with the water wall, and only served to create a steam cloud.

"Water style: Water dragon jutsu!" With that, a massive serpentine dragon of water rushed down towards Jiraiya, jaws wide in a silent roar.

"Earth style: Mud ball wall!" Jiraiya shouted, and spat a stream of mud out of his mouth, Which created a massive earthen bulwark against the water jutsu. The water dragon collided with the earthen wall, ripping chunks out of it, but failing to penetrate the defensive jutsu. Naruto then appeared right behind Jiraiya, Getsuga tearing through the air, but Jiraiya blocked with a kunai. Naruto seemed to fly through his sword dances, using every thing he had, but Jiraiya would always block. Finally, Naruto decided to use the final dances of his style.

"Waxing crescent dance." Naruto almost whispered, and began the first dance of his sword style. Getsuga became a blur, lines of black that Jiraiya struggled to keep up with. When the dance ended, Jiraiya's kunai was notched and cracked. Casting the kunai away, Jiraiya quickly brought out a second one, just in time for Naruto's second dance.

"Waxing quarter dance." Naruto quietly intoned as he appeared behind Jiraiya. Jiraiya was once again on the defensive as Naruto attacked and warped repeatedly in various angles of attack. Jiraiya had to put all his concentration into blocking and avoiding Naruto's extremely swift strikes. This time the kunai didn't last. Getsuga sliced through it and bit deep into the toad sage's arm, drawing first blood.

_'Dammit, and the kid's not even channeling chakra through the blade.'_ Jiraiya leaped back, a hand pressed against the wound, and his eyes widened when Naruto blew wind chakra onto his sword.

"Waxing half dance." Naruto called out, and threw Getsuga towards Jiraiya, the blade becoming a spinning black saw blade. Slapping his hands together, Jiraiya leaped away from the spinning blade of death, but was thoroughly shocked when Naruto warped in and snatched the blade by it's hilt mid spin and slashed at the retreating toad sage, the tip of the sword a hairsbreadth away from carving a furrow in the bridge of his nose. Before Jiraiya could put ground between him and Naruto, the blonde leaped after his master, Getsuga a bunch of black lines as it sought flesh to bite into. It was not disappointed, and furrowed through Jiraiya's left pectoral. Despite the pain, Jiraiya kept his hands clasped together, and managed to get out of Naruto's range.

_'Dammit, I know I told him not to hold back, but this is ridiculous. The kid's destroying me with kenjutsu alone. I need to get into sage mode, and fast.' _Then Jiraiya noticed Naruto holding his hand in a half ram handsign, and immediately knew what was coming next.

"Lunar illusion: Shadow of the moon's fang" said Naruto, activating the genjutsu. He then slowly swept Getsuga through the empty air, and after-images appeared right behind the blade.

"Oh crap." said Jiraiya as he tried putting ground between him and his student, though he knew it was futile. His fears were confirmed when Naruto warped in front of him.

"Waxing gibbous dance." said Naruto, and dashed towards Jiraiya, illusory after images following behind the blonde, mimicking his every motion. Jiraiya knew it was pointless to dispel the illusion, if he did, Mugetsu would replace Naruto's chakra with her own to maintain the illusion. Jiraiya kept his eyes on the real Naruto as best he could as the blonde dashed and zig-zagged around him, the after images hanging in the air. Then, Naruto swung, and Jiraiya dodged, only for his eyes to widen in surprise when Getsuga came down on his shoulder from behind. Jiraiya then exploded into smoke, and revealed Getsuga to be embedded into a log. Naruto slowly gazed to his right, seeing Jiraiya by the mud ball wall he created earlier. Once again Naruto made a slow deliberate sweep with Getsuga, after-images trailing along with the blade. Jiraiya got ready for the next attack, and noticed a sphere of light encompassing his hands.

_'Good, it won't be long now. Hopefully I'll be in sage mode before he ends the full moon dance.'_ thought Jiraiya as he once more tracked Naruto's movements. This time he was successful, and managed to avoid the real Naruto's blade. Naruto made a half ram handsign and dispelled the illusion on Jiraiya, then crossed two fingers together.

"Shadow clone jutsu." said Naruto, and five clones appeared in poofs of smoke. Jiraiya readied himself, knowing the full moon dance was going to be extremely difficult to avoid.

**(End Naruto ost Anger)**

**(Insert Naruto ost Jinchuuriki)**

"Full moon dance." called Naruto, and the shadow clones sprinted towards Jiraiya, while the real Naruto warped behind the toad sage. Jiraiya was immediately on the evasive, constantly dodging six Naruto's warping around him and striking at various angles. Jiraiya knew that if the dance was to continue, Naruto would separate his hands and end the sage mode summoning, so he fought back. One Naruto warped by Jiraiya's left side, and was kicked so hard his head did a one eighty, snapping his neck and dispelling the clone. The next Naruto came in behind Jiraiya to the right, and got his throat crushed by an elbow strike, dispelling him. Immediately, two Naruto clones warped beside Jiraiya on both sides, and both were smashed in the face by Jiraiya's wooden kabuki sandals when the toad sage leaped into the air and did a full split. Just as Jiraiya completed the attack, the real Naruto warped right in front of him and struck the toad sage in the chest with an open palm strike, then quickly warped away.

Jiraiya's eyes widened, and he checked his chest where Naruto had struck him, and noticed a seal.

_'Oh no, don't tell me he's using that attack.' _Jiraiya immediately looked at Naruto, and his stomach sank. Naruto had his arm outstretched, hand clasped around Getsuga's hilt with the blade pointed towards the ground.

_'Dammit! He's going to use it. If I get hit by that, I'm done for.' _Then Jiraiya noticed the glow surrounding his hands getting brighter.

_'A little more. Just a few more seconds.'_

"Final waxing dance: Solar eclipse." To Jiraiya, those words sounded like they were uttered from the mouth of the death god himself. His eyes were riveted to Getsuga as Naruto let go of the sword's hilt, and allowed the blade to fall point first to the ground. But instead of sticking into the ground, Getsuga seemed to sink into it like the ground was water, it even left ripples as it sunk. Soon the blade disappeared into the ground, and Jiraiya started to panic, then he noticed the brightness of his hands.

_'Almost there, just a little longer.' _Thousands of distortions in the air surrounded Jiraiya, who was sweating in fear.

_'Come on, come on. Hurry up!' _Ripples, thousands of ripples, like the ones Getsuga made as it sank into the ground, appeared all around Jiraiya, their epicenters facing every possible angle. Above, below, the ripples were everywhere.

_'Hurry! Oh man, I don't think I'm gonna make it.' _Jiraiya's hands could no longer be seen, obscured by the glowing light of the chakra gathering there. His eyes were wide with fright, as out of the epicenter of every ripple, the tip of an obsidian black blade appeared, seeming to pierce through dimension itself.

_'Almost there!' _Then the blades struck, tearing through the air, seeking to bury themselves into Jiraiya's flesh. There was nowhere to run, no time to substitute, no room to dodge. The blades struck at every possible angle. Then, an instant before they struck, time seemed to stop for Jiraiya.

_'Done.' _A colossal explosion of chakra roiled off Jiraiya's form, obscuring it, and firing the blades back where they came. Naruto shielded his eyes from the explosion with an arm.

_'What did sensei just do?' _Naruto mentally wondered, as he could see nothing due to the giant dust cloud in the air. Then he heard the voices.

**(End Naruto ost Jinchuuriki)**

"What's the big idea of summoning us lad? I was working on lunch." said an irate elderly female

"Sorry Ma, sorry Pa, but I'm testing Naruto right now, and it's escalated to the point where I can no longer fight without the use of sage mode." replied Jiraiya.

"What are you testing little Naruto in that would require sage mode?" asked an elderly male voice.

"The final test I can give, Pa. A no holds barred, all out battle between the two of us. If he wins, then he has completely surpassed me. It's a good thing you came when you did, Naruto had unleashed solar eclipse."

"One of his kenjutsu dances I take it?" asked the male voice.

"Yes. One of his two most deadly dances. He sends Getsuga into a dimensional pocket space, and then it shatters into a thousand pieces, each piece becomes a new sword, identical in every way to the original blade. The blades then lock onto a marked target, and pierce the target at every possible angle."

"You're lucky we got here then. Little Naruto seems quite adept in space time manipulation." said the female voice.

"Funny thing is, I never taught him space time manipulation. He created his space time techniques by picking apart his father's flying thunder god technique." Then the dust cloud dissipated, revealing Jiraiya, and the two toad elders, Fukusaku and Shima, sitting on his shoulders. It was Jiraiya however that held Naruto's focus. Jiraiya had undergone an interesting transformation. His nose had become much broader, with several warts growing on it. His eyes had become smaller, and the pupil had become beady. He now sported a goatee, and the red lines under his eyes had become much thicker. His hands and feet had also become amphibian shaped and webbed.

_'So sensei's using sage mode, but it looks completely wrong. He's just borderline of becoming a toad. It seems he can't perfectly control the natural energy he takes in. Anyway, Getsuga should be finished reforming by now.' _Naruto outstretched his left hand to the side, and dimensional ripples appeared in front of it. Then, Getsuga's hilt pushed itself through the epicenter of the ripples, and Naruto grasped the hilt and pulled the blade out completely.

" All right you two, we've got to be careful. I survived Naruto's waxing moon dances, but his waning moon dances rely heavily on his space time manipulation. This is going to be tricky." said Jiraiya, getting into the frog fu opening stance. Shima just snorted.

"If your so worried, then we'll take him down right now." and with that, she fired her tongue out at the blonde, and much to Jiraiya's surprise, ensnared Naruto with it.

"Now Pa" said Shima, and Fukusaku unleashed a torrent of high pressure water which plowed into Naruto. Said blonde however, warped out of danger at the last second, and reappeared right behind Jiraiya, only to warp away before Jiraiya's sage mode enhanced fist collided with his face.

"Little Naruto is certainly quick to avoid you in sage mode Jiraiya boy." said Fukusaku.

"Careful you two, here he comes."

"Waning gibbous dance." Naruto intoned, and shot towards Jiraiya, only to vanish into dimensional ripples. Then, distortions in the air started surrounding the toad sage, undulating like waves of water.

"What does this dance do Jiraiya boy?" asked Fukusaku, trying to sense Naruto.

"Naruto himself has entered his pocket dimension. These undulations surrounding us are openings that he'll use to leap out and strike at us. Normally he uses his Lunar illusion: shadow of the moon's fang genjutsu in conjunction with this dance, but since I'm in sage mode, genjutsu is useless." Then Jiraiya's eyes widened, and he leaped to the side to avoid Naruto's strike. Jiraiya struck out at Naruto, but the blonde blocked with Getsuga, Jiraiya's fist colliding with the light devouring metal and not leaving a dent despite his strength in sage mode. The force however, fired Naruto through the air backwards, only for the blonde to vanish into the air, dimensional ripples marking his passage.

"Now what Jiraiya boy, will he try again?" asked Fukusaku.

"I don't think so. Naruto knows how sage mode works, so he knows that I'll be able to sense his attacks as soon as he appears, and I have the speed necessary to avoid and counter. Therefore, he might be planning to stop the dance of the new moon in favor of ninjutsu. On the other hand, we might be heading for the worst case scenario, Lunar eclipse."

"Lunar eclipse?" asked Shima, to which Jiraiya gave a slow nod.

"Yes, Lunar eclipse. The final dance of Naruto's kenjutsu style. I've seen him do it once on a bandit camp. All there was was a huge flash of black, and everything was sliced apart. Nothing and no one survived intact." The two toad elder's eyes widened in shock at this piece of news, then they heard Naruto's voice.

"Waning half dance." and suddenly, Getsuga came flying out of an opening, spinning like a saw blade and coated in wind chakra. Jiraiya managed to avoid it, and it vanished through another opening, only to fly out another an instant later. Jiraiya was constantly avoiding the spinning blade, and managed to avoid injury. Getsuga flew past one last time, and finally remained in Naruto's dimension.

"Little Naruto is an extremely difficult opponent to fight. It's only due to sage mode we've been able to keep up." said Shima.

"Waning quarter dance." Naruto's disembodied voice rang out, and ripples started appearing in front of Jiraiya.

_'A direct assault? He knows that will never-' _Jiraya couldn't finish that train of thought, because instead of Naruto, Mugetsu's clawed forepaw shot out of the portal and smashed into the unprepared toad sage.

"Crap, I forgot about Mugetsu." said Jiraiya as he barely held the claws at bay with his strength. Then ripples started forming behind him.

_'Oh no, I can't stop him with Mugetsu pinning me like this.' _Thankfully, Fukusaku noticed the distortion, and sent Naruto back by firing a cutting stream of super pressurized water at him, forcing the blonde to re-enter his dimension lest he get sliced in half, then he reappeared above them, and Fukusaku again repelled him. This continued for a bit, until Naruto and Mugetsu retreated back into their pocket dimension.

"Thanks Pa, he would have gotten us if not for your quick thinking. Now be careful, this last dance is by far his trickiest, and his craziest."

"Craziest?" asked the toads, and Jiraiya nodded, but before he could reply, Naruto's voice rang out.

"Waning crescent dance." And suddenly Naruto flew at the trio and laid into them, swinging Getsuga like an insane berserker. The blade was nearly everywhere at once and struck at complete random, Giving Jiraiya a hard time dodging. Naruto then vanished, and reappeared behind Jiraiya while spinning like a tornado and screaming like a hooligan, complete with wind chakra whipping and whirling around him, speeding his gyrations. Jiraiya dodged the black and yellow tornado, and Naruto vanished once more, reappearing behind Jiraiya and laying into him once more. The process continued until Naruto finally disappeared and didn't reappear again.

"Phew," sighed Fukusaku, "now I see what you meant by crazy, I was almost struck a few times there."

"It's not over yet boys, he's above us." said Shima, and the two looked up to see Naruto on Mugetsu, sword drawn and pointed down at them.

"Oh no, he wouldn't, he wouldn't dare."

"Final waning dance." said Naruto.

"Brace yourselves!" screamed Jiraiya.

"Lunar eclipse." finished Naruto, and Jiraiya lowered his head and awaited the bloodbath. One second passed, then two, then three. No black flash. No going up in a geyser of blood. Jiraiya slowly looked up to see Naruto in the same position, grinning like a fox.

"Just kidding sensei." He chuckled, causing Jiraiya to facefault.

"You idiot! What was that all about?! Here you are threatening us with your most apocalyptic attack, and you joked about it?!" Jiraiya would have ranted further had the two toad elders on his shoulders not punched him in the face.

"Stop screaming in my ear!" They screeched. After Jiraiya shook off the pain, he turned his attention back to Naruto.

"All right brat, your kenjutsu is superb, S rank without a doubt, but let's see how you fare in ninjutsu. Sage arts: Massive Rasengan!" And true to it's name, the rasengan Jiraiya was holding was truly a massive thing. Before it hit Naruto and Mugetsu, they both warped out of the way, then Naruto went through some handsigns.

"Fire style: Dragon flame bombs!" The blonde shouted, and fired a flamethrower stream at Jiraiya. The toad sage avoided the flames with ease, and launched at Naruto with another massive rasengan. Naruto again warped away, and went through the seals for an earth jutsu this time.

"Earth style: Earth dragon stone cannon!" With that, A massive serpentine dragon comprised of stone and soil erupted from the ground, and with a roar, fired a barrage of massive stones at Jiraiya. The toad sage merely punched the rocks, reducing them to gravel. Ma then fired her tongue out and snagged Mugetsu, bringing the the dragon down to the ground. Pa then fired off a cutting stream of pressurized water, intent on slicing the dragon in half. Naruto would have none of it, and warped himself and Mugetsu out of harm's way.

"You done yet Jiraiya boy?" asked Fukusaku.

"Yes, though I'm not sure it'll work. This seal was made by Minato in case someone ever managed to use flying thunder god against the leaf village, but this is Naruto's bloodline limit. I'm not sure the seal will affect him."

"Well lad it's better than nothing." replied Shima.

"All right, here we go. Sealing jutsu: Flying thunder nullification." Jiraiya then slammed his hands on the the ground, and a seal spread across the battlefield. Jiraiya then moulded his chakra, as did Shima and Fukusaku.

"Sage arts: Bath of boiling oil!" The three called out, and Jiraiya spat out a torrent of oil, as Fukusaku and Shima fired a stream of wind and fire, creating a massive tidal wave of blazing oil that headed straight for Naruto. Naruto tried warping, but nothing happened. He tried opening his pocket dimension, only to receive the same result. Naruto knew Mugetsu wouldn't be able to get herself in the air before the jutsu struck her, so he flipped through the handsigns for his most powerful defensive jutsu.

"Earth style: grand earthen fortress!" he screamed as he flipped through the last handsign, and an absolutely colossal wall of stone rose out of the ground beneath him and Mugetsu, blocking the deluge of burning oil. Hands a blur, Naruto flipped through a long chain of handsigns in seconds, ending on dragon.

"All right sensei, you want to play rough, I'll give you rough. Lava style: Melting earth god!" Then, from beneath the still settling oil, erupted a massive serpentine dragon made of super hot obsidian. Molten rock and earth flowed through it's every crack and joint, and the inside of its mouth glowed white from the sheer heat within it. With speed that seemed impossible for something of it's size, the molten dragon rocketed towards Jiraiya.

"Sage arts: Massive Rasengan!" Jiraiya hollered as he smashed the colossal ball of whirling chakra into the face of the jutsu. The rasengan shredded into the melting earth god, causing a deluge of white hot magma to erupt from the destroyed head of the dragon, which sprayed everywhere due to the rasengan. Jiraiya was forced to back off, lest he get struck with the super hot molten rock.

"Did we stop it Jiraiya boy?" asked Fukusaku, only for the molten dragon's head to reform completely.

"I guess not." replied the toad sage. Jiraiya tried everything, but the lava jutsu overpowered or reformed from every defense against it.

"Damn, this is getting us nowhere. Naruto must be constantly feeding the jutsu chakra. If that's the case, we have to get him to end the handsign he's holding. Pa, fire a water slicer at the earth wall he's standing on." Fukusaku did as bidden, and the water slicer cut through the earth wall, causing it to collapse. Naruto immediately lost balance and had to separate his hands, causing the melting earth god to fall to the ground, the magma comprising it hardening into obsidian. Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief when his plan worked, but his relief was short lived when Naruto called out his next jutsu.

"Lava style: Lava bullets." With that, Naruto started firing globs of thick, red hot lava at Jiraiya, who easily avoided the jutsu. Naruto then unleashed his volcanic river jutsu, but Jiraiya avoided it as well. Then Naruto used a different sub element.

"Ice style: Black dragon blizzard." called out Naruto, and his left arm was encased in black ice that lengthened and became a black red eyed ice dragon that shot at Jiraiya.

"Sage arts: Toad inferno." called out Jiraiya, and spat out a stream of oil, while Fukusaku lit it ablaze and Shima fueled the flames with wind, creating a flamethrower stream that was three times hotter than dragon flame bombs, easily melting and destroying the black dragon blizzard. It had the unfortunate side effect of creating a large steam cloud, which obscured Jiraiya's vision. The toad sage looked around, then heard Naruto call out a jutsu he was not not expecting.

"Boil style: Water dragon's wrath." Jiraiya jumped to the side, just in time to avoid a water dragon comprised of furiously boiling water rip through the space he had been in a second ago. As it passed, Jiraiya could easily feel the heat coming off it.

"Jiraiya boy, you cannot get hit by that sub element. It'll cook you alive in an instant." warned Fukusaku.

"Boil style: Boiling liquid bullets." Jiraiya once again dodged the extremely hot water, and knew something was wrong.

**(Insert Naruto ost Strangeness))**

"this is odd." he muttered aloud.

"How so Jiraiya boy?" asked Fukusaku.

"Naruto is using these powerful jutsu, yet he knows that in sage mode I can sense and avoid every one of them, making them useless. Naruto is much smarter than this, so why is he wasting chakra like this?"

"I honestly have no idea Jiraiya boy. It could be he's trying to maintain this steam cloud we're surrounded in to obscure our vision."

"That won't work though. When in sage mode I can pinpoint exactly where he is no matter what's blocking my sight. Naruto knows this yet he's throwing around useless jutsu."

Jiraiya then had to avoid another volley of boiling water bullets, which brought more steam into the cloud surrounding the sage and elder toads. Jiraiya then noticed he was sweating something fierce, but disregarded it as the condensation of the steam surrounding him. More boil style ninjutsu was fired and Jiraiya avoided everyone of them.

"Why is he doing this? It doesn't make sense."

"Damn it, all this steam is getting to me, it feels like I'm in a sauna." muttered Shima.

"Oh quiet, a little heat won't kill you." said Jiraiya with a smirk.

"Just because you're always in the bathhouses doesn't mean we like this." snapped Shima. Jiraiya then noticed he really was sweating.

_'Wait a minute. It can't be that hot in here. Steam doesn't rise in temperature' _Jiraiya thought, then he noticed Fukusaku and Shima panting.

"A question, sensei." Naruto's disembodied voice seemed to float all around the toad sage. "What happens when you stick a frog in boiling water?"

_'what's he getting at?'_ thought Jiraiya. "It jumps back out."

"Correct sensei, now what happens when you put a frog in a pot of water, then bring that water to a gradual boil?" asked Naruto, and Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.

"The frog will just sit there until it boils to death."

"Correct again sensei, now let me tell you something, you're the frog." At this Jiraiya's eyes widened in horrific realization, and he started running out of the steam cloud, but it was already too late.

"Steam style: Searing mist jutsu!" shouted Naruto, and was met with three screams of pain. When the steam cleared, Jiraiya and the two toad elders were on the ground, their skin red and blistered.

**(end Naruto ost Strangeness)**

"Dammit Jiraiya boy, we've taken too much damage. Ma and I need to return to Myobokuzen." said Fukusaku, pain in his voice.

"All right then, dispel both of you." said Jiraiya, and the two toads on his shoulders vanished in puffs of smoke. This caused Jiraiya to drop out of sage mode.

"Oh, by the way sensei. While I was keeping you busy in the steam cloud, I removed the seal keeping me from warping." Jiraiya's eyes widened at this, and he shakily got to his feet, wincing from the steam burns as they flared up in pain from the movement.

"Of course sensei, you've now put all your focus on me and have completely ignored the real threat. Now Mugetsu." Jiraiya paled, and knew that he could not escape.

'Genjutsu: Realm of the moonless sky' Mugetsu's telepathic voice rang in Jiraiya's head, and was the last thing he heard when everything went black.

…...

**A/N: **

**(Rat Monkey Boar Dragon Tiger Snake Hare) Author Style: Cliffhanger no Jutsu! Okay, now that that's been dealt with, I profusely apologize for taking so bloody long with this. The problem with this chapter was that there is still more to be done before Naruto returns to the leaf, and I tried cramming it all into this one chapter, but the overwhelming size it would become always made me put off doing it. So I decided to stop it here for now. However, I can confirm that in three more chapters we are going into the Shippuden plotline. Now, I know many of you are going to rage and flame that Naruto has become OP in ninjutsu with all his sub elements, but please hear me out first. I know Naruto has quite a few sub elements, but this is Naruto we're talking about here. Would any of you expect Naruto to just sit there and only learn Lava and Ice style? Heck no, so why should Naruto be restricted from that in this fic. Another thing is that when I make my protagonists OP, I'm gonna be making my antagonists god mode, that's a fact. Expect a Madara more powerful than in the manga, along with my penchant for throwing everyone a curveball.**

**One final thing. I'm putting up a poll on what should be the last sub element Naruto learns on his training trip. Voting will close when we start the shippuden arc. Once again everyone, I'm sorry for taking so long with this. Anyways, what did you all think? Like it/love it/hate it? R&R Please, and peace out.**


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